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 well or how poorly a person or group of people lives in terms of satisfying their needs and wishes (“Living Dictionary Definition Standard,” n.d.), (“OpenStax CNX,” n.d.). A society's standard of living combined with quality of life supports the Human Development Index, which Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq created in 1990 (Bennett, 2016). The Human Development Index emphasizes that people and their capabilities should be the final criterion for evaluating a country's development, not just economic growth (“Other Resources,” n.d.). Variations include differences in income distribution, currency conversion, and difficulties in assessing the true value of public goods such as defense and transportation infrastructure, as well as merit goods, such as health care and education (Online et al. , 1971). To compare the gross domestic product of different countries it is necessary to address currency issues and the human development index. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Measuring GDP means counting the production of millions of different goods and services that result in a total dollar value. These products include everything from cell phones to cars. When GDP is expressed in the common currency, comparisons can be made to each country's GDP per capita by dividing the GDP by the 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 one U.S. dollar would purchase in the United States. The price level relationship between the PPP conversion factor (GDP) and the market exchange rate of various countries can be found in the World Bank data table (“Data”, 2016). Large GDPs associated with large populations can be misleading (“OpenStax CNX,” n.d.). Many goods are under government control, such as services rendered in the so-called “hidden economy”; to avoid taxes, transactions may be unrecorded and excluded from official statistics (Online et al., 1971). Raw GDP data does not reflect things like free time and the value that different societies place on products. GDP statistics can be recalculated in terms of purchasing power, referring to the amount of currency 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 have differences in the hours worked to reach a certain level of income, variations in international prices and difficulties in assessing the real 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 performance in the key dimensions of human growth: a long and healthy life, in-depth knowledge, and an adequate standard of living. . The HDI is the geometric mean of the normalized indices for each dimension. The raw data does not take into account the human element of economic growth. The HDI uses the logarithm of income to show the decreasing importance of income as gross national income increases. Scores for the three HDI size indices.