United Nations Human Development Report 1998

Every year since 1990 the United Nations Development Programme publishes a reliable source that provides an alternative perspective on critical issues for human development worldwide. Human development means the enlargement of all human choices, and in this case, it refers to improving consumer choices respecting human life. Every annual report presents agenda-setting data and analysis. The report tries to focus international attention on issues and policy options to meet the challenges of economic, social, political, and cultural development.

The 1998 report investigates the 20th century's growth in consumption. World consumption has expanded at an unprecedented pace over the 20th century, with private and public consumption expenditures reaching $24 trillion in 1998—twice the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950. In 1900, real consumption expenditure ...