Although comparing the GDP of different countries is naturally problematic due to various cultural differences, two main difficulties arise: ; there is no common legal tender, requiring currency conversion, and GDP is only a rough reflection of a population's true measure of how a person or group of people lives good or bad in terms of satisfying one's needs and desires ("Living Dictionary Definition Standard", nd), ("OpenStax CNX", nd). A society's standard of living combined with quality of life supports the Human Development Index created by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 (Bennett, 2016). The Human Development Index emphasizes that people and their capabilities should be the final criterion for assessing a country's development, not economic growth alone (“Other Resources,” nd). Variations include differences in income distribution, currency conversion, and the difficulty of assessing the true value of public goods like defense and transportation infrastructure, as well as valuable goods, like health care and transportation. education (Online et al., 1971). To compare the gross domestic product of different countries, it is necessary to address the questions of currency and human development index. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayMeasuring GDP means counting the production of millions of different goods and services, resulting in a total dollar value. These products include everything from cell phones to cars. When GDP is expressed in common currency, comparisons can be made with each country's GDP per capita by dividing GDP by population. The purchasing power parity conversion factor is the number of units of a country's currency needed to purchase the same amount of goods and services domestically that a U.S. dollar would purchase in the United States . The price level ratio between PPP (GDP) conversion factor and market exchange rate of various countries can be found in the World Bank data table (“Data”, 2016). High GDPs associated with large populations can be misleading (“OpenStax CNX,” nd). Many goods escape government control, such as services provided in the so-called “hidden economy”; to avoid tax, transactions may not be recorded and excluded from official statistics (Online et al., 1971). Raw GDP data does not reflect things like leisure or the value that different societies place on products. GDP statistics can be recalculated in terms of purchasing power, referring to the amount of money needed to purchase a given unit of a good or a common basket of goods and services. Purchasing power is determined by the relative cost of living and inflation rates in different countries (Online et al., 1971). Countries experience differences in hours worked to reach a certain income level, variations in international prices as well as difficulties in assessing the true value of public goods. A more realistic measure of gross domestic production involves the human development index, which takes into account a summary measure of average achievements in key dimensions of human growth: a long and healthy life, being well informed and have an adequate standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of the normalized indices for each dimension. Raw data does not take into account the human element of growth.