Measuring Quality of Life: The Compassion Action Index

1. Quality Of Life In The 20 Most Affluent SocietiesThe Compassion Action Index Ron Anderson , University of Minnesota, USA & Foundation for Compassionate Politics rea@umn.edu Presentation at the International Society for Quality of Life Studies Florence, Italy, July 23, 2009 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

2. 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 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

3. How do we relieve suffering? 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) • Compassion • Creative Service & Development • Cash & other resources Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

4. What is Compassion? • 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 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

5. Why is it important for a country to practice compassion? • Kindness not hatred • Generosity not greed • Forgiveness not revenge • Peace not anger • Trust no dishonesty • Responsibility not fear To stimulate constructive, not destructive, forces Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

6. Conceptual Framework • 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? Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

7. How can we measure a country’s 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 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

8. Ingredients of Compassion Peace Responsibility = intersection that defines a truly sustainable community or society Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

9. Compassion Action Index *For a total of 42 indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

10. Countries in the Compassion Action Index, 2009 *Rich countries with tiny populations were not included. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

11. Calculation of the Compassion Action Index Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

12. A Glimpse at the Scores for 20 countries & 9 Components

13. The colors of the bars designate the 3 tiers of the countries.

14. 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 Action Index. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

15. 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 5 survey questions ------ 42 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

16. Socio-Economic Well-Being Indicators *Inverse calculated as: largest data value minus data value **Boldface signifies lower inter-correlations with other indicators. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

18. Child Well-Being Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

20. Human Life Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

22. Health Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

24. Non-Violence Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

26. Integrity & Justice Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

28. Civil Society Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

30. 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. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

31. EnvironmentIndicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

33. Generosity Indicators Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

34. 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. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

36. A Glimpse at the Scores for 20 countries & 9 Components

37. 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 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. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

38. 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. 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. Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

39. CompassionatePoliitcs.org Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

40. Why www.CompassionatePolitics.org? • 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 Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu

41. 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/ CONTACT: Ron Anderson – rea@umn.edu