I added a page to the Medianism FAQ to explain why Median Expected Lifetime Income (MELI) is better than the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). There are four main reasons:
- MELI is simpler to understand, more transparent in its formula, and less ad hoc.
- MELI has units that give it more empirical meaning. It is unscientific to discard units of measurement.
- MELI is better at correcting for inequality.
- MELI eliminates the overemphasis on the education measure that probably adds more noise than signal because of the high measurement error in educational quality and the high correlation between true educational attainment and the other two measures that are also part of the HDI, lifespan and income.
Medianism 