The single biggest roadblock to achieving independence is the lack of an inspiring vision of the kind of nation an independent Scotland should become.
Critics argue that wellbeing is subjective and cannot be measured. They are wrong. The right wants to double down on GDP as they believe that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ but growing inequality has destroyed the trickle-down economics case. The left see it as a threat to socialism and it is – it is equally a threat to capitalism, taking the best and workable elements of both systems and turning them to a higher purpose than just economic growth or shared ownership of the means of production.
Scotianomics answers this question of measurement with the Scotianomics Wellbeing Economy Index, which measures national indicators across five dimensions of wellbeing. Each dimension is composed of sub-measures which are summed together to give a dimension score. These are then averaged to give each nation an overall Wellbeing Score. This allows for easy comparison between nations and for policymakers to quickly understand in which area their nation needs improvement or strengthening. Scotland, which lacks the data gathering tools of an independent nation does not appear on the 2023 Index. Scotianomics covers this in the report and makes recommendations about how this can be rectified.