Quality Of Life In The 20 Most Affluent Societies The Compassion Outcome Index

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Quality Of Life In The 20 Most Affluent
SocietiesThe Compassion Outcome Index

• Ron Anderson ,
• University of Minnesota, USA
• Foundation for Compassionate Politics
• rea_at_umn.edu

Presentation at the International Society for
Quality of Life Studies Florence, Italy, July 23,
2009
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Background Facts

• World population? 6.8 billion
• Undernourished people? 1 billion
• Deaths from hunger this year 8 million
• Suicides this year? 580,000
• Total Children? 2.2 billion
• Children orphaned due to HIV/IDS? 15 million
• Deaths of children under five this year? 6
  million
• United States population? 306 million
• Prescriptions for antidepressants in USA in 2005?
  118 million

Suffering
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How do we relieve suffering?

• Compassion / Humanitarianism
• Creative service development
• Cash other resources

• 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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What is compassion?

• Compassion is empathizing with the suffering of
  others.
• Active compassion (humanitarism) is taking action
  to alleviate that suffering.
• Compassion can be
• Personal
• Community-based
• Societal
• In societies (countries), compassion/humanitar-ian
  ism is not so much a matter of choice but of
  policy.

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Why is it important for a country to practice
compassion?

• Kindness not hatred
• Generosity not greed
• Forgiveness not revenge
• Peace not anger
• Trust not dishonesty
• Responsibility not fear

To stimulate constructive, not destructive, forces
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Conceptual framework

• Sociology of caring compassion
• Oliners sociology of caring
• Wuthrows theory of compassion individualism
• Bellahs sociology of commitment
• Etzionis 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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How can we measure a countrys compassion?

• 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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Ingredients of compassion
Peace
Responsibility
intersection that defines a truly
sustainable community or society
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Compassion Outcomes Index
Nine Components ( Sample Indicators)
Economic Equity (Percent in poverty) 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)
For a total of 42 indicators
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Countries in the Compassion Outcomes Index, 2009
The Twenty Most Affluent Countries The Twenty Most Affluent Countries 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
Rich countries with tiny populations were not
included.
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Calculation of the Compassion Outcomes Index
Steps
Locate the statistic (e.g., or mean) for each country for any given indicator. 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. 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. 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. The Compassion Outcomes Index is the mean for each country of all nine component scores.
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A glimpse at the scores for 20 countries 9
components
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The colors of the bars designate the 3 tiers of
the countries.
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Country clusters based upon similarity of
inter-correlations among nine index components
Cluster One Cluster Two Cluster Three Belgium
Finland Spain (2) Sweden New Zealand
Japan (2) Denmark Canada (3) United States
Austria Australia (3) France Germany
(2) Ireland United Kingdom Italy (2)
Switzerland Netherlands Portugal
Norway Note The numbers in parentheses show
the group number of the country based upon their
level/tier in the Compassion Outcomes Index.
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This table lists all 42 indicators 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 2 time use questions
3 other survey questions ------ 42
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Economic Equity Indicators
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 time Average 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 retraining Pontusson, J. Inequality and Prosperity,
Inverse calculated as largest data value minus
data value Boldface signifies lower
inter-correlations with other indicators.
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Child Well-Being Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Low child poverty Inverse 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-report UNICEF Innnocenti Report Card, 2007 and OECD PISA
Few homicide victims Murdered males ages 10-29 World Report on Violence Health
Few births to teens Inverse of births per 1,000 mothers age 15-19 UNICEF Innnocenti Report Card, 2007
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Human Life Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Low homicide rate Inverse of homicide rate Home Office Statistical Bulletin
Low suicide rate Inverse of suicide rate, 2006 OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008.
High life expectancy High life expectancy OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008.
Few road fatalities Inverse of road fatalities per million OECD, Factbook, 2008.
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Health Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Low infant mortality Inverse of infant mortality OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008.
Percent with health coverage Percent of population covered by any health insurance OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Low incidence of AIDS Inverse of AIDS rate OECD, Health at a Glance, 2008
Low obesity Inverse 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
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Non-Violence Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Low crime victimization rate Inverse of percent victimized by crime OECD Factbook, 2009
Contributions to peace Index 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
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Integrity Justice Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Corruption-free organizations Index of Corruption-free organizations Transparency International
Corporate Social Responsibility Index of Corporate Social Responsibility Scand. J. of Management 25 (2009), 10-22.
Human rights protections Inverse of privacy violations by nation Guardian Observer
Protection of Citizens from Surveillance Privacy Index Privacy International
Low prison populations Inverse of prisoners 100,000 persons OECD Factbook, 2008
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Civil Society Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Democracy Index Democracy rating by nation Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008
Turnout in national elections Percent voting in last parliamentary elections International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assist
Low television viewing Inverse of adult average weekly time viewing television NationMaster.com
Freedom of the press Index Freedom 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.
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Environment Indicators
Indicator Data Used Source
Low carbon dioxide emissions Inverse of emissions per capita UN Environmental Indicators, 2004
Low water consumption Inverse of water consumption per capita OECD, Factbook, 2008
Low municipal Waste Inverse of waste per capita OECD, Factbook, 2008
Low energy consumed Inverse of energy consumed per capita OECD, Factbook, 2008.
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Generosity Indicators
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 time Percent who reported volunteering for social services work in past year Dekker and Halman and www.jdsurvey.net
Refugees hosted per citizen Refugees 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
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One indicator is amount of Aid to Developing
Countries without strings attached.

• 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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A Glimpse at the Scores for 20 countries 9
Components
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Four Conclusions

• 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
  Outcomes 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 Outcomes Index. Given that
  American economists like Lindert and Pontusso
  argue for emulating the direction of the Nordic
  nations, new reflection and action are needed.

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Conclusions

• 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.
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• 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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CompassionatePoliitcs.org
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In September, 2009, look for CompassionatePoliitcs
.org

• 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/