Measuring a Whole Society
You can’t know if you’re there yet without some way to measure progress; the same is true for entire societies. Learn about the following socioeconomic indicators with your team: what do they try to measure? Then look up the numbers corresponding to your country and discuss with your team: how accurately do they reflect what it’s like to live there? And how should we decide what the end—or goal—of a society is?
- Gross Domestic Product | Gross National Income | Gini Coefficient
- Human Development Index | Multidimensional Poverty Index | Labor Productivity
- Happiness Index | Passport Index | Big Mac Index
On paper, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea looks as rich per person as western Europe — yet most people lack clean water or power. One number calls it a success; daily life says the opposite.
Key concepts
- What Gets Measured Gets Managed
- The metric a society tracks becomes the thing its leaders chase. Choose GDP and governments pursue growth; choose a happiness or health measure and they may pursue wellbeing instead — so picking the indicator is quietly picking which country to build.
+ 2 more concepts inside
Every work — at a glance
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — Simon Kuznets (economic indicator)
The total value of all goods and services a country produces in a year — the default measure of national success, and the one that ignores who ends up holding the money.
+ 8 more works explained inside
What to know
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01
What do these indicators try to measure? Different definitions of 'there', and they disagree on purpose. GDP and GNI measure produced wealth; the Gini coefficient measures how evenly it is shared; the HDI and MPI fold in health and schooling; the Happiness Index asks how life feels; the Passport and Big Mac indices catch freedom of movement and the value of money. Because each has quietly decided what a good society is, a country can top one ranking and sink on another — which is why you should always check your own country's figures against your own life.
Across subjects
Theme connection
"Are We There Yet?"
Practice — a sample
SOCComparing a burger's price across countries to gauge purchasing power is MOST like —
- A Gross national income
- B Labor productivity
- C The Passport Index
- D The Big Mac Index
- E The Gini coefficient
Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.
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