Do the statistics tell the whole story?

Well, after making the last post about the correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and GDP a good friend who works at the UN pointed out that while the statistical relationship may be there, measuring GDP can distort the whole picture when much of the growth is concentrated with the elite. It would be interesting to see if there are instances where GDP is growing dramatically but HDI is not keeping pace. That said, I still think more money, time and energy should be spent working to solve the problems of poverty rather than on determining the best way to measure its alleviation.