Don’t just judge Thailand’s prosperity on the rankings

How do you read the Legatum Prosperity Index 2015 – only as a list of rankings?
In 2012 Thailand was the 18th most prosperous country economically. Mr Bernard is right to say Thailand was ranked 13th in 2014 – the year the Army held the power seven out of the 12 months, and then dropped two places to No 15 in 2015. So how do we judge that based on a country that is only partly out of turmoil? Thailand leaped three places on the overall rankings and dropped two places on the economy.
But for the economy it was still in the middle in the green zone. Only 30 countries are listed as economically prosperous. So is Thailand prosperous or not?
Isn’t it fair to interpret the ratings as an overall picture where Thailand’s very special circumstances in recent times are taken into account rather than just referring to plain rankings?
My view is that the general trend seen in the Legatum Index is on the prosperous side for Thailand, an argument which obviously doesn’t work with Mr Bernard, who insisted on arguing based only on numbers.
And by the way, I am not the one who makes the headlines.
I rest my case.
A Johnsen