Engagement | Looking Inside-out..and outside-in...and then again

We interact with the outside world..interpret the external stimuli based on numerous variables, process the new info - add/subtract/reinforce and move on to the next. The interpretation is a complex function with numerous variables like previous experience, previous knowledge, hearsay from trusted or un-trusted sources, research, trends etc etc etc...a long list. And as a result, we take a decision to get engaged, or commit to an idea or a cause. The level of engagement can decide on the level of participation or contribution we make. To keep things simple, it can be considered as the interaction between  'inside' and the 'outside'. 

If I want to engage someone - actively, I should be aiming at all quadrants except the Outside-outside, where there is no active engagement. The future behavior for people in the O-O quadrant might change to active - but we can always analyse that using other models (Standing ovation model...maybe!!)

Social Progress Index (SPI) is what measures

On my quest to find out if there are other means or mechanisms being developed to co-relate measures of economic abundance with real human satisfaction, I came across the Social Progress Imperative. The opening statement on the page - About the imperative - which explains the mission says it all:

Numerous studies have found a high correlation between economic growth and a wide variety of social indicators, yet there is growing awareness that economic measures alone do not fully capture social progress.

Their first initiative is the Social Progress Index (SPI), which aims at evaluating to what extent the governments have been successful in providing for the social and environmental needs of their citizens, and it takes into account 52 indicators across 3 major categories of Basic human needs, Foundations of well being and Opportunity.

There are 50 countries which have been evaluated and ranked in the first version, but more will follow.
US still seems to the land of opportunity..cliched..huh ;-)

Social Progress Network is another of their initiatives, and I do they can make a tangible difference by helping governments and policy makers understand where they stand and helping them formulate action plans for the future.

GDP vs Happiness

While taking a class on Macroeconomics, I was intrigued by two examples cited, where economists tried to evaluate if the GDP has a bearing on people's extent of being happy. The evaluation question in itself is a natural consequence of self-introspection on the behalf of the macro-economists, because they are trying to find out if all the effort and focus bestowed on GDP is really worth something else than the sum of the produce. The first example was for US - and this is the graph which was referred to:

The researchers observed that the increase in GDP did not have any effect on the general level of happiness in the US. At the same time, another example - East Germany - was cited to also show that the US trend does not hold good for all counties.

East Germany's example was cited more importantly to analyse what happened when the circumstances of the people was changed drastically. The observations are very different from the observations in the US, and the survey showed that the level of happiness did increase with the increase in GDP.
Somewhere, the conclusion seems to be that there is a certain threshold of income up to which the GDP/happiness co-relation holds well.
No doubt this endeavor is a noble one, since GDP is the measure of how modern economies hold up. Correspondingly, there are ways which psychologists have been trying to measure human satisfaction levels. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is one such way.
GDP, by virtue of what is stands for, does seem to correspond to the second level in the hierarchy - safety needs. But then that might not be enough. From here on, the discussion becomes very subjective - that of respect, and love, and self actualization, which pertains to feelings of the individuals who are part of the system and the economy.
It seems GDP became a little over ambitious thinking it could influence an ever elusive emotion of happiness. It contributes surely and the examples cited are perfect to show how much.