A capacity for wise and well-informed self-direction was
identified in a recent post on this blog as one of five basic goods that a
flourishing human could be expected to have. A flourishing human could be
expected to have developed that capability because it is integral to the
process of human flourishing. The nature of humans is such that as individuals mature,
they have a unique potential to direct their own flourishing in accordance with
values they endorse and goals they choose.
Wise and well-informed self-direction helps individuals to
maintain other basic goods of human flourishing that are necessary to their
pursuit of chosen goals. The exercise of
practical wisdom helps individuals to live long and healthy lives, maintain
positive relationships, manage their emotional health, and live in harmony with
nature.
How do individuals develop a capacity for wise and
well-informed self-direction? It is possible to teach people about the virtue
of practical wisdom, but it doubtful whether anyone has ever learned to
exercise much practical wisdom without having responsibility to make choices in
the real world. Individuals have the strongest incentive to learn how to make
wise and well-informed choices in an environment that provides both great scope
for freedom of choice and an obligation to accept responsibility for the
consequences of the choices they make.
However, the opportunities for individuals to be
well-informed also vary among countries depending on the knowledge that is
readily available to them. Some of that knowledge is obtained through formal
education, some is obtained on-the-job and some is absorbed through less formal
interactions with family and friends. Individuals could be expected to have
better opportunities to make well-informed choices if they live in countries
where workforce skill levels are relatively high. That increases the chances
that individuals will have easy access to relevant
information for the important decisions they must make.
In what follows I consider how individual opportunities vary
among countries, first in respect of freedom to choose, and then skill levels.
Freedom to choose
The accompany graph shows scores for perceived freedom and the
Human Freedom Index for 126 countries for which matching data are available. Perceived freedom is the national average of positive responses to the Gallup World Poll (GWP)
question: “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what
you do with your life?” The Human Freedom Index (HFI), developed by the Fraser
Institute, incorporates 79 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedom
to provide an objective measure of the state of freedom in each of the countries
covered.
The graph shows that the countries ranked most highly using
the HFI are also ranked highly in terms of perceived freedom. (Matching perceived
freedom data is not available for Hong Kong, which was still one of the most highly
ranked countries in the most recent HFI.) Switzerland, New Zealand, Ireland,
Australia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, U.K. and Canada are presented
as relatively free according to both indicators. However, perceived freedom
also appears relatively high in some countries that more objective measures suggest
are relatively unfree e.g. China. This may be a consequence of the binary
nature of the GWP question. It would be more difficult for a survey respondent living
under an authoritarian regime to tell a questioner that they are unsatisfied
with their freedom to choose, than to give a moderately low score if asked to
rate how much freedom they enjoy on a numerical scale. China’s score was close
to the average in the 2010-14 World Values Survey (WVS) which asked respondents
to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 “how much freedom of choice and control you feel
you have over the way your life turns out”.
If you want a reliable indication of differences in human freedom
among different countries it makes sense to use objective indicators, where
possible. However, perceptions can sometimes provide useful information. For
example, if women and men have different perceptions about the amount of
freedom in their lives, that might reflect a gender equality issue. In fact,
WVS data indicate that in most countries women and men have similar perceptions
of the amount of freedom of choice in their lives. The few jurisdictions in
which women rate the amount of freedom in their lives substantially lower than do
men include Pakistan, Palestine and India.
Skill levels
The indicator of skill levels constructed for the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) provides an appropriate basis for international comparisons
of the knowledge that people are likely to be able to access readily in making
important decisions. The GCI skills indicator incorporates perceptions of
participants in a survey of executives coving questions relating to staff
training, skillsets of graduates, digital skills of the population, ease of
finding skilled employees and critical thinking in teaching, as well as education
statistics such as years of schooling.
The top 10 ranked countries in terms of skill levels (for a
data set of 118 countries) were Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, U.S., N.Z. and U.K. If that list looks familiar it
might be because it overlaps strongly with the list provided earlier of the countries
ranked most highly in the Human Freedom Index. A simple regression shows a
strong association between skills and human freedom (R2 = 0.50).
It seems unlikely that much of that association can be
explained by direct causal links between freedom and skill acquisition. The
most likely causal linkage is via the link between economic freedom and
economic development. Economic development increases the demand for skilled labour.
Conclusion
Individuals have strong incentives to learn how to make wise
and well-informed choices in countries where there is a great deal of economic
and personal freedom. They are likely to have easier access to relevant
information in countries with relatively high skill levels.
There is a strong overlap between the countries
ranked most highly in the Human Freedom Index and the skill levels indicator of
the Global Competitiveness Index. Both measures rank Switzerland, New Zealand,
Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and U.K. among the top 10 countries.
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