David Martin's EU Tribune

Socrates advised his listeners to seek the ‘Good Life’ – but what is it?
Oxfam Scotland has been trying to find this out and I am proud to have been part of the working group that commissioned the Oxfam Humankind Index which tries to gauge the answer to this perennial question..

Even though it is not yet warm enough to go out in Scotland without the thermals it is great to walk about the shore line and breathe the salt sea air – it makes you feel happy to be outside, makes life worth living.

We know that everyone needs enough money to buy life’s basic goods, but few really believe that, on its own, cash is enough. That’s Why Oxfam Scotland has created a new way of measuring what makes a good life: one that takes money into account, whilst also recognising that it takes more than just economic growth to make a prosperous nation. The Oxfam Humankind Index is about valuing the things that really matter to the people of Scotland. This might include their social relations, their health and skills, their physical environment and natural context, and their financial assets.

The first assessment of Scotland’s performance shows that the country’s overall prosperity increased by 1.2% between 2007-08 and 2009-10, largely due to improvements in how people felt about their health and community spirit.

This rise in prosperity could have been larger, but was hampered by the impact of the economic downturn on the Scots. We found that between 2007-08 and 2009-10, there was a 43% fall in people’s financial security, a 26% fall in the number of Scots feeling they had secure and suitable work, and a 24% fall in the number who thought they had enough money.
Scotland is an ill divided place. The country’s most deprived communities are lagging behind, with a 10% gap in people’s health compared with Scotland as a whole, a 16% gap in how people are managing financially and a 40% gap in issues around the quality and safety of the local environment.

We hope this Humankind Index will help the Scottish Government to focus on what really matters, and to make more informed decisions about where Scotland wants to go. We want to ensure that policymakers make policies that bring real prosperity to Scotland, not just policies that try to advance economic growth regardless of the cost on communities or our environment. It’s about remembering that the economy should serve the people, not the other way around.

The views of the people of Scotland have been crucial in constructing the Humankind Index; we want it to be a reflection of what Scotland’s people say are their priorities, concerns and ambitions and what was abundantly clear is that they want more than just economic growth – they want ‘the good life’.