ron anderson, university of minnesota, usa & foundation for compassionate politics [email protected]...
TRANSCRIPT
Ron Anderson , University of Minnesota, USA
& Foundation for Compassionate Politics
Presentation at the International Society for Quality of Life StudiesFlorence, Italy, July 23, 2009
1Ron Anderson – [email protected]
World population? 6.8 billionUndernourished people? 1 billionDeaths from hunger this year: 8 millionSuicides this year? 580,000
Total Children? 2.2 billionChildren orphaned due to HIV/IDS? 15
millionDeaths of children under five this year?
6 million
United States population? 306 millionPrescriptions for antidepressants in
USA in 2005? 118 million
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Lack of resources is not the problem World military spending this
year $736 trillion USD ($108,000 per person)
World spending on illegal drugs this year $214 billion USD ($31 per person)
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• Compassion • Creative Service & Development• Cash & other resources
Compassion is empathizing with the suffering of others.
Active compassion is taking action to alleviate that suffering.
Compassion can be Personal Community-based Societal
In societies (countries), compassion is not so much a matter of choice but of policy
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Kindness not hatred Generosity not greed Forgiveness not revenge Peace not anger Trust no dishonesty Responsibility not fear
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Sociology of Caring & Compassion Oliners’ sociology of caring
Wuthrow’s theory of compassion & individualism Bellah’s sociology of commitment Etzioni’s “Spirit of Community”
Ecological economics, a guidepost Suggesting that we ask what are the elements
needed for sustainability of social organizations?
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Forty-two social Indicators were selected that reflected the degree of suffering in each country or whether the people were acting to reduce
suffering either now or in the future.
These 42 indicators fall into 9 components
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Responsibility
Peace
= intersection that defines a truly sustainable community or society
Nine Components* (& Sample Indicators)
Socio-Economic Well-Being (Income Inequality)
Child Well-Being (Often eating with parents)
Human Life (Few homicides)
Health (Low infant Mortality)
Non-Violence (Low arms exports)
Integrity & Social Justice (Human rights protections)
Civil Society (Low television viewing)
Environment (Low carbon emissions)
Generosity (Percent volunteering for social services work)
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*For a total of 42 indicators
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*Rich countries with tiny populations were not included.
The Twenty Most Affluent* Countries
Australia Germany Portugal
Austria Ireland Spain
Belgium Italy Sweden
Canada Japan Switzerland
Denmark Netherlands United Kingdom
Finland New Zealand United States
France Norway
Steps
1. Locate the statistic (e.g., % or mean) for each country for any given indicator
2. Calculate standard scores (z-scores) by subtracting each county statistic, x, from the mean of all countries, and dividing the result by the standard deviation of all countries
3. Re-standardize each z-score to give each set of scores a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, just like an intelligence test score
4. After this is done for all the indicators in a component set, e.g., health, then the mean of all non-missing scores is calculated for each country, to produce the component index score.
5. The Compassion Action Index is the mean for each country of all nine component scores.
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Cluster One Cluster Two Cluster ThreeBelgium Finland Spain (2)Sweden New Zealand Japan (2)Denmark Canada (3) United States Austria Australia (3) FranceGermany (2) Ireland United KingdomItaly (2) SwitzerlandNetherlands Portugal Norway
Note: The numbers in parentheses show the group number of the country based upon their level/tier in the Compassion Action Index.
Country Clusters based upon Similarity of Inter-correlations Among Nine Index Components
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Indicators of the Compassion Action Index 2009
Seq. Indicator No. Component Index 1 Low inequality 1a Socio-Economic Well-being 2 Low adult poverty 1b Socio-Economic Well-being 3 Low unemployment 1c Socio-Economic Well-being 4 Adequate vacation time 1d Socio-Economic Well-being 5 Government spending for workers as percent of GDP 1e Socio-Economic Well-being
6 Low child poverty 2a Child Well-Being 7 Low percent living in single-parent families 2b Child Well-Being 8 Percent often eating evening meal with parent(s) 2c Child Well-Being 9 Few homicide victims aged 10-24 2d Child Well-Being 10 Few births to teens 2e Child Well-Being
11 Low homicide rate 3a Human Life 12 Low suicide rate 3b Human Life 13 High Life expectancy 3c Human Life 14 Low road fatalities 3d Human Life 15 Low infant mortality 4a Health 16 Percent with health care coverage 4b Health 17 Low incidence of AIDS 4c Health 18 Low obesity 4d Health 19 Low pharmaceutical spending per person 4e Health 20 Low crime victimization 5a Non-Violence 21 Contributions to peace 5b Non-Violence 22 Low military spending per person 5c Non-Violence 23 Low arms exports 5d Non-Violence
24 Corruption-free organizations 6a Integrity/Justice 25 Index of Corporate Social Responsibility 6b Integrity/Justice 26 Human rights protections 6c Integrity/Justice 27 Protection of citizens from surveillance 6d Integrity/Justice 28 Low prison populations 6e Integrity/Justice 29 Democracy Index 7a Civil society 30 Turnout in national elections 7b Civil society 31 Low television viewing 7c Civil society 32 Freedom of the press 7d Civil society 33 Percent of Women Members of Congress/Parliament 7e Civil society
34 Low carbon dioxide emissions 8a Environment 35 Low water consumption 8b Environment 36 Low municipal Waste Per Capita 8c Environment 37 Low energy consumed per capita 8d Environment 38 Kindness & helpfulness of peers 9a Generosity 39 Volunteering time 9b Generosity 40 Refugees hosted per citizen 9c Generosity 41 Government aid to developing countries 9d Generosity 42 Government social spending as percent of GDP 9e Generosity
This table lists all 42Indicators of the Index.It is not intended for reading. Each of the 9 components will be Discussed one at a time.
The sources of the indicators are as follows: 30 official statistics 7 existing org. indices 5 survey questions------ 42
Socio-Economic Well-Being Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Low income inequality Inverse* of ratio of income of richest 10% to poorest 10%
United Nations Development Program
Low adult poverty Inverse of percent of adults living below 50% of median income
United Nations Development Program
Low unemployment **Inverse of adults out of work annualized as of August, 2008:
International Labour Office
Adequate vacation timeAverage number of vacation weeks taken by employed adults.
Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America 2008/2009
Government spending for workers as percent of GDP
Includes services and retrainingPontusson, J. Inequality and Prosperity,
*Inverse calculated as: largest data value minus data value**Boldface signifies lower inter-correlations with other indicators.
Child Well-Being Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Low child povertyInverse of percent of children living below poverty line
United Nations Development Program
Low percent living in single-parent families
Low percent of children age 11, 13,15
UNICEF Innnocenti Report Card, 2007 and OECD PISA.
Low % of children often eating evening meal with parents
Age 15 self-reportUNICEF Innnocenti Report Card, 2007 and OECD PISA
Few homicide victims Murdered males ages 10-29World Report on Violence & Health
Few births to teensInverse of births per 1,000 mothers age 15-19
UNICEF Innnocenti Report Card, 2007
Human Life Indicators
April 19, 2023 20Ron Anderson – [email protected]
Indicator Data Used Source
Low homicide rate Inverse of homicide rateHome Office Statistical Bulletin
Low suicide rate Inverse of suicide rate, 2006 OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008.
High life expectancyHigh life expectancy OECD, Health at a Glance,
2008.
Few road fatalitiesInverse of road fatalities per million
OECD, Factbook, 2008.
Health Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Low infant mortality Inverse of infant mortalityOECD, Health at a Glance, 2008.
Percent with health coveragePercent of population covered by any health insurance
OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Low incidence of AIDS Inverse of AIDS rateOECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Low obesityInverse of percent obese age 15+
OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Low pharmaceutical spending per person
Inverse of rate of spending for pharmaceutical products
OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Non-Violence Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Low crime victimization rate
Inverse of percent victimized by crime
OECD Factbook, 2009
Contributions to peaceIndex of Contributions to Global Peace
Economist Intelligence Unit
Low military spending per person
Inverse of per capita spending for defense
CIA World Factbooks.
Low arms exports per person
Inverse of arms exports per capita
Federation of Amer. Scientists
Integrity & Justice Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Corruption-free organizationsInverse of percent of children living below poverty line
United Nations Development Program
Corporate Social Responsibility
Index of Corporate Social Responsibility
Scand. J. of Management 25 (2009), 10-22.
Human rights protectionsInverse of privacy violations by nation
Guardian Observer
Protection of Citizens from Surveillance
Privacy Index Privacy International
Low prison populationsInverse of prisoners 100,000 persons
OECD Factbook, 2008
Civil Society Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Democracy Index Democracy rating by nationEconomist Intelligence Unit, 2008
Turnout in national electionsPercent voting in last parliamentary elections
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assist
Low television viewingInverse of adult average weekly time viewing television
NationMaster.com
Freedom of the press IndexFreedom House, Global Press Freedom, 2008
Women members of Parliament/Congress
Percent of members who are women in 2007
UN Statistics Division
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According to time use research, Over the past 50 years average television Viewing time has been mostly about the same, except for Canada and the UK, where it steadily rose to 2.5 hours per day.
Environment Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Low carbon dioxide emissions
Inverse of emissions per capita
UN Environmental Indicators, 2004
Low water consumptionInverse of water consumption per capita
OECD, Factbook, 2008
Low municipal Waste Inverse of waste per capita OECD, Factbook, 2008
Low energy consumedInverse of energy consumed per capita
OECD, Factbook, 2008.
Generosity Indicators
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Indicator Data Used Source
Kindness & helpfulness of peers
Percent of children age 11, 13, 15, who reported kind peers
Health Behavior of School age Children study
Volunteering timePercent who reported volunteering for social services work in past year
Dekker and Halman and www.jdsurvey.net
Refugees hosted per citizenRefugees hosted per citizen UMHCR Statistical Yearbook,
2007
Government aid to developing countries
Index of Aid to Developing Countries
Center for Global Development, Commit. To Development Index
Government social spending as percent of GDP
Government social expenditures in 2003
OECD Factbook, 2008
The index takes into account the quality as well as quantity of the aid given. For instance, military aid is weighted much less than unencumbered economic assistance.
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1. Quality of life differences among affluent societies can not be explained by economics alone. How people, and their politicians, view their responsibilities for generosity, compassion and altruism also determines to what extent all have an opportunity for social well-being.
2. Consistent with Lindert (2004), Pontusso (2005), and Kenworthy
(2004) the Nordic countries and Netherlands topped off the compassion action index, but a diversity of counties landed at the top of component indices, including Spain, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium. In some areas such as health, human life, and “integrity and social justice,” the majority of countries clustered around the middle of the distribution. Countries like the USA, where “income transfer” is an anathema, did very poorly on the Compassion Action Index. Given that American economists like Lindert and Pontusso argue for changes in the direction of the Nordic nations, new reflection and action are needed.
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3. It may be surprising to some that the United States falls at or near the bottom of each of the component indices. One possible explanation is that the quality of life overall in the United States deteriorated over the past two decades under the influence of policies that allowed the welfare of the wealthy to grow while the well-being of the lower income people declined. This casts doubt on the theory that individualism and compassion are fully compatible in a society.
4. Most of the countries clustered around the middle range of the
continuum of compassion or non-economic attributes of well-being. That none of the countries scored at an extremely high point suggests how difficult it is to implement compassionate policies while attending to economic and other political considerations.
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To promote deep caring for all human beings at all levels (personal, community, nation, and global)
To educate and thus shape public policy toward greater compassion
To be an intersection of ideas and people via a social network tool
Release relevant data and reports on quality of life studies
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April 19, 2023CONTACT: Ron Anderson – [email protected]
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CompassionatePolitics.org will feature:• International Advisory Board• Technical details on Index 2009• Articles by various authors• Forum & blog for open dialog• Polls and surveys• News and newsletters
Slides and charts from this presentation can be found at:http://www.soc.umn.edu/~rea/