X-Message-Number: 6411
From:  (David Galileo)
Subject: Global Economic Progress in SciAm
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 11:06:09 -0700

The July 1996 issue of _Scientific American_ on page 28 features a short
article titled "The Changing Quality of Life," illustrated by two world maps
dated 1960 and 1990 with each nation's Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)
color-coded.  The article defines PQLI as "being based on life expectancy at
age one and rates of literacy and infant mortality," without explaining in
more detail how the PQLI for a given nation is calculated.

The upshot is that the PQLI for most of the developing world has
dramatically improved over the last 30 years, despite the increase in
population and the warnings of neo-Malthusians like Paul Ehrlich that we're
destroying the planet.

However, given the stagnation in U.S. living standards since the early
1970's, another way to interpret the graph is to say that other nations are
catching up to the sort of PQLI the U.S. attained years ago.

David Galileo   
"A good man is pre-eminently capable of providing himself with a good life
entirely from his own resources, and is absolutely the last person to need
anyone or anything else."  Plato, _The Republic_ 387d.


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6411