« Who Are The Mortacracies? Part III | Main | Zarqawi's video: what we haven't seen! »
May 4, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part IV
So far, I have suggested that mortacracies be defined by their democide (Part I), and also by their LE--the life expectancy of a people from birth--(Part II), and their LE within the context of a peoples' HDI--general well being--(Part III). While some free countries may have a very low HDI and LE that they inherited from their previous rapacious thug regimes, I expect that their very low LE will be moving upward. And those thug regimes whose people have moderately high LEs should show them falling as the regime's rapaciousness and corruption affects the people's well being.
So, what does the difference in LEs for all countries look like for a reasonable length of time, such as nine years? I calculated this for the difference in LE between 1998 and 2006 and got for this period an average world increase in LEs of 1.6 years (median of 1.8 years), with a standard deviation of 4.4. I then converted the differences to standard scores, which makes comparing these changes from one country to another much easier. The average of the standard scores then = 0, with a standard deviation =1. The plot of these standardized differences is quite revealing, as shown below.
(if it is unclear or does not show, click here):
(Continued here)
Posted by Rudy at May 4, 2006 10:12 PM
