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or not.

These are basic common sense things. Any human being is aware that people need good housing, decent food, clean water, medical care, good working conditions. While people's religions and philosophies vary immensely, down at the level of basic human needs, we all share the same ones. When we're sick, we need medical care. When we're old and can't work we need to be treated with dignity and able to live comfortably till death.

Beyond those basic needs, a measure of progress in a society would be its advances in the sciences and the arts. Is it healthy enough to create a Renaissance? Is there new research and innovation? Are the arts flourishing and are people innovating in the arts? Or are the arts and sciences limited to a superstar few who were lucky enough to get enough prominence to practice them as professions?

Education is another measure of progress. How successful is the country's education programs? Are there serious gaps? What is its literacy rate? Where are its philosophers and thinkers, where are the scholars who can learn from the past and gather new knowledge about the world? Are universities accessible to average citizens, or are they limited to the elite few? How well do those universities rate in comparison with those in other countries?

What do a country's working conditions look like? Are people working full time and still lacking basic necessities of life? Are people working long hours with few or no vacations? Are people by and large happy at work? This is a subtle one, but when unemployment is high it's more of a survival priority for people to take whatever work they can get. Sustainably, in the long term, it's important that more people find work that's meaningful to them and get to do it in safe healthy conditions with reasonably good pay and hours, and time off to pursue all of the other aspects of life that human beings need - spirituality, family, friendships, arts and interests, hobbies.

Throughout the history of the arts and sciences, great men and women have risen out of obscurity because they were inspired amateurs spending their free time on a personal project they had a passion for. Sometimes they became full time artists or scientists on getting successful, sometimes not, but when a society is healthy enough that most people have the time and resources to pursue avocations, that society will gain tremendous rewards from the work people do from their hearts for no other reason than that they love it.

Great art, music, writing,

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