Maybe it’s the time of year that is the reason for Index and Rankings of national performance. Anyway, in the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index the UK has remained static in 13th position for the last four years.
The Institute state their aim as,
“The purpose of the Prosperity Index is to spark debate and to encourage policymakers, scholars, the media, and the interested public to take an holistic view of prosperity and to better understand how it is created.”
That’s fine, and so is the composition of the index to include of Economy, Entrepreneurship and opportunity, Governance, Education, Health, Safety and Security. But, what is Social Capital. Even after I’ve read their definition, I still struggle with the concept. It seems, from their report, that a high-ranking in Social Capital is strongly related to lower regulation. An interesting conclusion. Social Capital takes into account the strength of volunteering in a society, something I consider that we’re good at.
Our lowest ranking is in Education, where we’re only 30th in the index. It’s surprising and worrying that countries such as Taiwan, Hungary and Slovenia are ahead of us in this ranking. We’re also only 18th in Health. There’s quite a bit to digest in this report.
One odd thing to report. I looked at the Prosperity Index of 2009, which used spider graphs. Not now it seems.
Interestingly, the countries doing best are also the countries with the least inequality. Perhaps if the UK followed the lead of the Scandinavian countries and pursued social policies leading towards the greater redistribution of wealth, we might find ourselves more prosperous.
By: leftoflightwater on November 1, 2012
at 10:35 pm