Workshop Questions : Measuring a Country's Development through HDI

WORKSHOP QUESTIONS 1
WORKSHOP QUESTIONS
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WORKSHOP QUESTIONS 2
Workshop Question 1
The UNDP describes development on the basis of three essentials, which includes the
ability for a country’s population to have long and healthy life, have a decent standard of living
and quality education (Frugoli et al, 2015, p.370). Through the Human Development Index, a
country’s overall well-being can, therefore, be easily measured. It’s a social measurement as it
takes into consideration the above three essentials through education; which entails adult literacy
rate and the average schooling years, healthcare level within a country as denoted by the life
expectancy and the economic factor of the GDP. HDI measures each of the three essentials in a
scale of 0 to 1, where 1 is the best while 0 is the worst. HDI is, therefore, a crucial measure of
economic and social well-being in a country because it covers both economic and social factors
hence reducing anomalies (Howard and Chambers, 2016, p.560).
The Human Development Index measures the success rate of a country through the
dimensions of wealth, education, and longevity. Prior to its invention as a crucial measure of
economic development, economic growth was the only factor used to measure success rate of an
economy, which did not incorporate personal aspects of development like the health status of
people and the education factor. In a country like Australia whose HDI is 0.93, it is useful
because it depicts the overall well-being of the country’s economy and its people in line with its
economic growth (Maridal et al, 2018, p.9). Because life expectancy and education are crucial
determinants of living standards in a country, and hence when those factors are measured plus
the economic growth, HDI provides some metrics to measure the development of countries.
In a country like Argentina which has a high HDI, its economic growth as presented by
its GDP does not match with the HDI. This is a clear indication that the HDI of Argentina is

WORKSHOP QUESTIONS 3
misleading and may make the country to assume being on the right track when the reality is
totally different (Sirgy, Estes and Selian, 2017, p.140). For that matter, basing the argument of
the economic well-being of a country on the HDI grounds should be done with great care
because it might be misleading.
Workshop Question 2
Based on the article “Unemployment is a necessary evil?” unemployment is truly a
necessary evil. First of all, it is evil because of its consequences in the current economic times. I
mean, how many times have we heard of people from different parts of the world die out of
hunger, got life imprisonment because they attempted to steal as a result of poverty and lack of
basics? Unemployment, however, plays a major role in ensuring that employees are paid well. It
can, therefore, be seen as a necessary evil.
When unemployment is perceived from an economic point of view, evil as it may appear
from a human point of view; it is necessary because the population of employable people always
surpasses that of the available employment opportunities and that makes it hard to have full
employment in any economy regardless of how developed it is. Assuming that all people are
absorbed in the job market, the available resources will be divided among all the employees and
that will mean each employer will be receiving very little in terms of salaries or wages. In
consideration to business organizations, they will be making very little in terms of returns and
hence there will be no growth at all.
Full employment in an economy will therefore mean low income to employees and which
in turn will imply low standards of living. this is in consideration to the fact that a country is said
to be on the right track when citizens have high standards of living. Full employment will,