Compassion Action Index

Ron Anderson , University of Minnesota, USA

& Foundation for Compassionate Politics

[email protected]

Presentation at the International Society for Quality of Life StudiesFlorence, Italy, July 23, 2009

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mailto:[email protected]

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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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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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. 7

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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 suic ide 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 surveil lance 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


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.

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Child Well-Being Indicators

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Low child povertyInverse of percent of children living below poverty line


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

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Human Life Indicators

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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.

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Health Indicators

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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+


Low pharmaceutical spending per person

Inverse of rate of spending for pharmaceutical products


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Non-Violence Indicators

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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

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Integrity & Justice Indicators

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Corruption-free organizationsInverse of percent of children living below poverty line


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

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Civil Society Indicators

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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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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.

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Generosity Indicators

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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

http://www.jdsurvey.net/

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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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 most 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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Education

Compassion Action Index