MANAGEMENT METRICS
STANDARD VALUE PROFILES
SOCIAL CAPITAL, QUALITY OF LIFE AND STANDARD OF LIVING
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QUANTIFICATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL
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Unit of Measure
A unit of measure for quality of life may be driven by reference to the value of life itself. There is life, and there is quality of life. The value of life should not be directly related to a money unit, but be defined independently from money.
A standard life unit could be defined as 1 life = 1 million standard life units. Everything to do with quality of life is associated to this unit.
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Important Caveat
In modern times there has been the widespread promulgation of GDP growth and Stock Market value as critical measures of national economic health and the use of these measures as a proxy for quality of life and standard of living.
This has resulted in major errors in policy formulation at the level of government and enabled the business segment of the economy to benefit at the unreasonable expense of most ordinary people and society. The TVM initiative is aware of this problem and seeks to avoid further error by improving the effectiveness of management metrics especially as regards social and environmental impacts.
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Quality of Life
Quality of life is the underlying 'raison d'etre' for everything that goes on in our modern enviro-socio-economic system, but there is not a very good way of measuring the state and flows of everything that goes into 'quality of life. Much of the measurement of the performance of the global enviro-socio-economic system has been measured using a money metric which has been assumed to have a strong correlation with quality of life. There is some truth in this for the 'bottom of the pyramid' (BoP) but this does not work at all well in richer societies. There are many components to quality of life, and they must all be optimized ... and for this relevant measures are essential.
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Money Wealth and Income
Money wealth and income are not important to quality of life, per se, but the availability of money enables an individual or a family to do things and buy things that are critical to the maintenance and improvement in quality of life. With money comes a freedom to do things that improve the quality of life for the individual, family and friends.
People with insufficient money income and wealth benefit directly from more money and wealth, while those with a lot of money and wealth get rather little incremental benefit. The ownership of vast amounts of money and wealth does little beyond giving the owner a certain amount of 'bragging rights'.
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The Individual
Chaacteristics ... character ... of the individual should be understood and respected. People are not all the same. It may be convenient for society to think of people as being similar, but this may not be right. A reasonable level of difference can bve a strength rather than a weakness.
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Family and Friends
Family and friends are a key part of the ecosystem that enables a decent quality of life. What constitutes a good quality of life may be subjective, but there is a difference between a good quality of life and a bad quality of life, and these should be optimized. There are important differences in cultures ... but there are issues that are either good or bad with respect to quality of life. There are interactions between individuals, their families and their friends that all go into making up quality of life.
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Ability, Parenting, Education, Skills and Experience
An individual starts out with some ability that has genetic origins, and this can be developed during a lifetime by good parenting, education, skills training and learning from experience. An optimized life is one where these inputs result in making the very best possible use of an individual's inate ability.
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Health, Wellness, Food, Nutrition and Lifestyle
An individual starts out with some genetic conditions that influence health and wellness, but an optimized life is enabled by appropriate healthcare, good nutrition from food, safe water, good sanitation, and healthy lifestyles.
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Shelter, Stuff that is Needed, and Stuff that is Wanted.
Shelter and stuff that is needed are essential. A better quality of life becomes possible when shelter is better and there is more stuff that is needed and some stuff that is wanted. At some point a better quality of life is not achieved by more shelter and more stuff.
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Feedback from Society / Social or Community Capital
The surrounding society has a huge effect on quality of life. It is the surrounding society that makes many things that are important for quality of life to be possible or impossible. It is the surrounding society that delivers security of various sorts or not. It is the surrounding society that provides for rule of law and things like physical infrastructure that enable an efficient economy. Social capital is the group version of individual human capital. Social capital has impact on individual human capital and individual human capital has impact on social capital. There is both a static and a dynamic dimension.
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Feedback from Natural Capital / Natural Environment
The surrounding natural environment may have a big impact on quality of life. It is the surrounding natural environment that makes many economic activities possible, whether this is agriculture because of fertile land, or commerce and trade because of navigable rivers, or mining and manufacturing because of mineral and energy resources that enable industry.
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Feedback from Economic Capital / Financial Capital
The surrounding natural environment may have a big impact on quality of life.
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Feedback from Economic Capital / Physical Capital
The surrounding natural environment may have a big impact on quality of life.
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Feedback from Economic Capital / Intangible Capital
The surrounding natural environment may have a big impact on quality of life.
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