• birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 hours ago

    I myself would favour to use:

    • median net discretionary GDP (PPP) per capita
    • generalised entropy index
    • Social Progress Index

    The first one yields that 50% of the population can buy more or less than a certain amount of stuff, after tax and regular expenses.

    The second could be used for wealth disparity. Unlike the Gini index, it allows you to view differences by groups.


    The third is very broad and does not use economics, instead focusing on general wellbeing. Some criticism I have on the index though, is that on regards of inclusivity, it doesn’t include the (very good) Asher Fergusson index for trans rights. LGBTQ+ isn’t just gays and lesbians, it’s all queer people.

    I’d also add in the Copenhagenisation index for bicycling, alongside with indices for pedestrian and public transit-friendliness.

    For countries occupying other areas, count those areas both separately and include them in that country’s statistics. So then Israel’s statistics are actually honest: the inequality is extremely high, life expectancy very low, and so on.

    To top it off, within the safety part of the social progress index, I’d include the detained population as a rate of the total, perceptions of state (and hybrid) violence, as well as extent of surveillance, police and para-military, armedness.

    Oh, and it’d be better to have sources be independent from state and corporatist actors.