October 27, 2005
Hampton Court and the 2005 UN Human Development Index
Just reading up on the one-day informal meeting of EU leaders at Hampton Court on the EU's response to globalisation (EU demographic collapse and Chinese/Indian economic accleration).
EU Report in PDF here
In the course of reading a Guardian commentary piece, I noticed the claim that the EU-25 all fit within the Top 50 places in the 2005 UN Human Development Index.
Just on spec, and for malicious fun, I decided to check out the data at Wikipedia ... which showed the following:
Setting aside the issue of whether the index is fudged in favour of soft criteria, the Anglosphere Big 5 (plus Ireland) are all in the top twenty. And if one calculates the Anglosphere population percentage in the top ten (not having time to total up the top 20), then the "European social model" needn't be the only route to UN HDI glory, as the Grauniad would imply. Roughly 92% of the people in the top ten developed nations in the world are Anglosphereans (inner/outer core). The rest live in northern Europe, or in the Alps! A bit of blue-sky estimation on the immigration rates to the Anglosphere strongly suggest it will continue to dominate the top end of the UN HDI from a population perspective for some time in the future. I don't expect to read about in the Guardian, however.
Posted by jmccormick at October 27, 2005 02:15 PMIt would be interesting to do up the population-weighted figures as a pie chart.
Posted by: Jim Bennett at October 27, 2005 04:28 PMGood facts. Good flags.
We should start talking about the many benefits of the "Anglosphere Social Model", and how the the so-called "savage capitalism" is much better for "human development" than the socialisme sauvage of France and other places, which condemn millions to a life of unemployment and welfare dependency.
Posted by: Lex at October 27, 2005 07:38 PMHa, I like that: the Anglosphere Social Model! We might be able to go far with that one...
Speaking of maps, it would be interesting to see a map of the various "spheres" (Anglosphere, La Francophonie, the Hispanosphere, etc.), with lots of fun facts and figures to go along with them (population, economic growth, social trust, entrepreneurship, unemployment, etc.). IMHO that's just about the only failing of Jim's book -- no maps. :(
Posted by: Peter Saint-Andre at October 28, 2005 09:21 AMTop thirty looks awfully like just twenty from where I'm sitting...
Posted by: Andrew Duffin at October 31, 2005 06:47 AM