Re: United Nations Human Indicators Index 2004

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

michael wrote:

> I recall that they jiggled to index to make the US look better. Is my
> memory playing tricks on me?

That was long ago, in the HDI's early days. In the first iteration,
the U.S. scored badly. As someone in the UN told me, "orders came
down from the top" - the White House - to make the numbers look
better. And they were remade to look better in subsequent years.

One reason - the first Bush admin had published docs saying
illiteracy rates in the U.S. were in the low teens. The HDI people
picked up on this, hammering the U.S. standing. Literacy was dropped
in favor of school enrollment stats, on which the U.S. does well.

Doug