At the beginning of this book, I stated that the world had arrived at a critical turning point, i.e., at a time in our shared histories when critical decisions needed to be made concerning the future of nations and that of the larger community of nations of which we are all part. The situation remains the same today despite five decades of progress of advancing the changing capacity of nations to meet not only the basic needs of their steadily increasing populations but their more advanced needs as well, especially in the social and economic security sectors. The situation is especially critical within nations identified in Chap. 6 and elsewhere in the book as “least developed” or “socially least developed countries” for which the basic needs of large numbers of their population go unmet, especially in response to diversity-related social conflict or warfare with neighboring states.

The reality is that many of the world’s socially least developed countries have not yet been able to fully meet the basic health, education, social welfare, housing, transportation, environmental, or economic needs of their people. But they are on the way to doing so, and more sustained progress is expected over the near-term. Financial poverty is all too common within many of these countries and, in most cases, there are inadequate levels of public assistance at all levels of governments to provide for the basic income security needs of their citizens who are the least able to provide for their own basic needs without the assistance of governments and major nongovernmental organizations, i.e., those of children and youth, the advanced elderly, homeless persons, persons struggling with serious emotional or physical disabilities, persons who are solitary survivors, or those who otherwise do not have or contribute directly their own fiscal and other material well-being. Cities in many of the poorest of these countries typically experience high levels of air and water pollution, comparatively low levels of sanitation and, inadequate systems for disposing of liquid and solid waste disposal, despite recent progress in all these critical sectors worldwide. As a result, visitors to these countries are at significant risk of being exposed to transmittable infectious and other communicable diseases and must, therefore, exercise considerable caution with respect to the beverages they drink and the foods they eat, even when such necessities emerge from the gleaming and carefully supervised kitchens in guest houses and multistar hotels. Emergency medical services for both local and international visitors often are difficult to secure and, when available, are expensive, limited, and highly transactional with little continuity of care. Few patient records are available, including history of exposure to communicable and infectious diseases.

In-patient hospital care in the majority of the least socially developing countries also is extremely limited, even at significant out-of-pocket costs, as are reliable systems of communication and transportation given the extreme demands that are placed on essential services in highly dense urban populations. Technology and technological innovation in many of these societies also are quite limited except for expensive “out of the box” technologies (e.g., computers, smartphones, iPads) that are available for purchase by more affluent consumers including people engaged in for-profit businesses, tourists, and other international visitors with access to stable hard currencies.

Even so, most of the world’s populations live under social conditions that are greatly improved compared with those of their parents or to themselves when they were children. Food in the world’s economically advanced societies tends to be plentiful; quality and continuity of health care are accessible to most people, especially urban dwellers; water and air pollution largely have come under control; more housing units are available; and spacious, clean, and safe public transportation is characteristically available to all at an affordable cost; the increased regulations of financial and related institutions are better managed; and the disposal of solid and liquid waste is generally effective and often is recycled for use in generating new sources of energy. In short, advances in well-being and the quality of life in the world’s most economically advanced nations have improved remarkably over the 50-year period since this analysis began. Prospects for even more rapid advances in all aspects of well-being for the future in these nations are even more optimistic than those that existed in the past and are expected to improve steadily over the near term (especially to the year 2050), particularly within the most economically developed nations of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, as well as for the more advantaged island nations of the Pacific and other world regions including Tahiti and other more affluent nations located in the Polynesian chain. These advances in well-being and quality of life have been dramatic and their impacts on quality of life for economically well-off populations over at least the recent past (since the end of World War II) have been both significant and impactful and almost certainly are expected to continue into other sectors of social, political, economic, technological, and environmental development for many decades into the future.

Well-Being Now and Over the Near Term: Progress, Progress, and More Progress

The process of change over the past century has been impressive and is continuing even as this still young century continues to unfold. I conclude this chapter with a moving quote from the former South Korean Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, who, in 2013, eloquently summarized the contributions made by the G-20 group of nationsFootnote 1 in advancing human well-being since the end of the Second World War. Said Ban Ki-Moon in Saint Petersburg, Russia (United Nations Secretary-General, 2013),

  • Sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. It offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieve social justice, exercise environmental stewardship and strengthen governance….

  • At the same time, we need to set a more ambitious agenda beyond 2015 (when the Millennium Development Campaign [2005–2015] would end).

  • The new agenda should place sustainable development at its core and make the eradication of poverty its top priority.

  • The new agenda will need a renewed, broad-based global partnership, particularly to mobilize finance and technology.

  • The new agenda will need to be supported by a single post-2015 UN development framework containing a single set of goals applicable to all countries but adaptable to different national realities.

  • Financing needs for sustainable development are enormous. ODA and domestic resources remain crucial. But I also welcome the G20’s focus on long-term investment financing, including the regulatory environment, incentives and risk-sharing to leverage private resources with public funds.

  • The new agenda must be tuned to the leading challenges we face, including the need for decent jobs, inclusive growth, improved governance, peace, and action on climate change.

  • The G-20 should lead by example.

Fortunately, the 192 member states of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1993 developed a follow-up plan of action to sustain the rapid pace of social development among the socially least developed of the world’s poorest nations. The new plan of global action brought together all the world’s major stakeholders in international development and was referred to as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that both built on and enlarged the range of development objectives to which the world has committed itself (United Nations Development Programme, 2018a, 2018b; Zondi & Mthembu, 2017)Footnote 2. The Sustainable Development Goals, like the Millennium Development Goals that preceded them, hold every promise of advancing still further the significant social gains that already have been attained by the world’s developing and least developed societies (Estes & Sirgy, 2018; United Nations Development Programme, 2018a, 2018b; World Bank, 2018).

At the outset of a new century, the need is apparent for new, more dramatic initiatives that will transform all the world’s nations into more caring and socially productive societies (Estes & Zhou, 2014; International Social Security Association, 2018; World Bank, 2018). At a minimum, these initiatives must be informed by a renewed commitment to the three goals on which the world’s leaders already agree: (1) the elimination of absolute poverty everywhere; (2) enhanced popular participation at all levels of political organization; and (3) a more equitable sharing of the planet’s abundant resources. The pursuit of these goals is achievable in the context of the major accomplishments that nations around the world already are achieving.

The social changes implied by these goals are complex, and they have not, nor will they, yield easily to simple or quick solutions to the lingering challenges confronting humanity. Rather, sustained financial and human capital investments will be required over the long term to reverse the social, political, and economic conditions that have trapped such a large portion of the world’s population in grinding poverty. At the heart of these efforts to change, though, must be a commitment to strengthening the capacity of local people to provide for their basic social and material needs within the realities of their own environment. No other approach to social development can hope to help the world’s poorest countries appreciably reduce the deeply entrenched patterns of mal-development that have held their populations hostage for more than five decades.

Promoting a More Optimistic Future

Suggesting a worldwide working agenda for the future is both a challenging and humbling undertaking. The challenge is even greater in that the intention is focused on accelerating the pace of advances in quality of life and well-being for all the world’s nations, especially given the extraordinary diversity that exists both within and between nations. Even so, having completed a study of the magnitude reported in this book warrants that priorities be assigned to at least some well-being objectives that will advance the human condition. Therefore, I have identified ten of what I regard as the most important advances that must be focused upon if, we the people, are to further improve both the objective and subjective conditions under which we live out our all too brief lives.

  1. 1.

    The elimination of absolute poverty remains the single greatest challenge confronting humanity. This is the case despite the tremendous progress that has been made worldwide in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty since 2000, especially in East and South Asia (Estes & Sirgy, 2018; United Nations Development Programme, 2018a; World Bank, 2018).

    1. (a)

      The challenge is especially significant among the remote rural communities of developing Africa, Asia, and Latin American where access to necessities such as potable water, fire wood, and adequate housing remains a challenge that consumes more than a third of the working hours of women and girls.

    2. (b)

      In a conversation this author had with the Danish Foreign Minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (10 September 1982–25 January 1993), he stated that “poverty is just too expensive a problem for us to afford.” And right he was, as evidenced by the extraordinary levels of spending invested in the poor in all societies that have not taken seriously the challenge of poverty alleviation and, as a result, have deepened the complex social problems that sustain poverty, ill health, poor education, and other related social issues.

    3. (c)

      Indeed, poverty is a social problem that is too expensive for any society, especially given its close association with high rates of school dropouts, imprisonment, broken families, drug abuse, and the other realities associated with it. Thus, the elimination of abject poverty remains front and center among the challenges that must be met head on if nations and the global community are to move forward.

  2. 2.

    The centuries of structural inequalities between women and men have long passed, and every effort must be made to provide women with the same educational, health, social, political, scientific, and other benefits that men have long enjoyed.

    1. (a)

      Significant progress has been achieved in advancing the status of women even as women continue to lag significantly behind men in most sectors that promote a reasonable standard of quality of life and well-being (UN Women 2018).

    2. (b)

      These efforts must be aggressive and far-reaching and, ultimately, must be successful if men and women alike are to free themselves from the limitations created by the all-pervasive inequalities that confront women and girls and, in doing so, deprive societies of the rich human resources they need to attain progressively higher levels of well-being.

    3. (c)

      And these initiatives must be applied to girls as well who quickly will develop into women in their societies.

    4. (d)

      This is not a win-lose strategy between men, boys, girls, and women but a strategy to advance the social well-being of both genders as co-equal partners and the well-being of society as a whole.

    5. (e)

      Thus, men and boys have major roles to carry out in helping to promote the social status of women and, in the process, of themselves. Men cannot place this responsibility on women alone nor can they expect local or national governments to take responsibility for changing the attitudes and biases that limit social, political, and economic opportunities for men and women alike.

  3. 3.

    Societies need to restructure their social support systems to provide at least minimum levels of income security for their most financially vulnerable citizens, including children and youth, the elderly, persons with severe physical and emotional disabilities, those who live on the margins of society, the poor, agricultural workers living in remote rural communities, and others with limited education and skills.

    1. (a)

      These forms of social provisions require close public–private partnerships, including the stakeholders in the corporate sector, employers, nongovernmental organizations, and others who share a commitment to improving the quality of life of their citizens and residents.

    2. (b)

      Special attention must be given to the varied contributions made to family economic insecurity by the following stakeholders who contribute to social well-being, i.e., the state or government, the economy or market, families and households, and nongovernmental organizations organized at all levels of political structure.

  4. 4.

    Health and access to high levels of health care are fundamental to the attainment of well-being everywhere in the world. The most socially successful nations spend approximately 6%–7% of their gross domestic product on health care, but to achieve parity with more socially advanced nations, developing and socially least developed nations may need to allocate at least twice their gross domestic product to providing quality health care at all levels of the political organization.

    1. (a)

      Public investments in preventive health care often produce the greatest yields, i.e., immunization, decentralized neighborhood health centers, visiting nurses, and major investments in pre- and postnatal care.

    2. (b)

      Adequate housing also is closely associated with advances in health well-being. So, too, is the safe and efficient elimination of liquid and solid waste, two vectors that are directly responsibility for the transmission of community-specific infectious and communicable diseases. Gains in one area reinforce gains in other related sectors; thus, the effort to improve individual and community health is dependent on social progress in other sectors of quality of life.

  5. 5.

    Nearly everywhere in the world formal education is key to social, political, and economic success.

    1. (a)

      Education also is a critical factor in technological innovation and, in the end, serves as a gateway to the selection of political leaders. Advanced educational backgrounds are somewhat less related to the criteria required for leadership in business except for high technology, pharmaceutical, and related knowledge-driven enterprises.

    2. (b)

      Societies everywhere need to strengthen their secondary and postsecondary approaches to education and, where possible, to reorient them towards a wide range of research and development priorities (Shaikin & Estes, 2018). Only in this way can previously less developed countries move into leadership positions vis-à-vis the already technologically advanced countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2018).

  6. 6.

    Participatory systems of political governance in combination with open market economies have proven to be one of the great successes in promoting quality of life and well-being in virtually all regions of the world. These systems are responsible for exponential levels of economic growth, higher than average levels of per capita gross domestic product, and, in the physical sphere, increased public accountability on the part of public officials to their constituencies. Though variations in this general model are likely to persist well into the future, democracies and free markets have yielded the single greatest improvements in human well-being since the end of World War II.

  7. 7.

    Everywhere, even in selected democratic societies, the public media have come under attack by pro-authoritarian political regimes (Cillizza, 2017; Ngosa, 2017). These attacks persist despite the incredibly positive effects that free and unencumbered media contribute to democratic political and open market economic systems. They also provide a corrective force for the abuses of authoritarian regimes to enact policies, regulations, and even laws that countermand the very principles on which democratic institutions are based.

    1. (a)

      Every effort must be made to promote freedom of the press and media throughout the world, given the unique functions that are assigned to them to monitor and expose corruption wherever it may exist. This function is critical to the structure of free societies and makes possible the flourishment of political and economic systems on which democratic societies everywhere depend.

    2. (b)

      Persons and institutions in the public sector that seek to weaken the oversight responsibilities assigned to the public media must be held legally accountable for this profane violation of the public trust. New international oversight bodies and national laws need to be put in place that effectively punish the attempts by public officials to prevent the public media from carrying out their mandated responsibilities.

  8. 8.

    The world’s leading international development assistance organizations have come under severe attack in recent years, including the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, the North America Free Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the North Atlantic Trade Organization, the United Nations, the World Bank, and others.

    1. (a)

      These critiques, often with the goal of disempowering the organization in question, must be resisted with the same sense of fervor that led to their creation. These organizations have proven to be critical for advancing world peace and for promoting global socioeconomic development. And, they have been largely successful in achieving the goal that literally has enabled us to “turn guns into plowshares.”

    2. (b)

      Even so, these organizations are critical to the social, political, economic, military, and other functions on which free market participatory democratic systems depend.

  9. 9.

    Much progress has been made in protecting the planet, including its highly fragile ecological systems. But still more gains are needed if we are to succeed in fully protecting the planet. At a minimum, these protections must include the following:

    1. (a)

      Continued control of carbon wastes that wreak havoc on the air, water, and related systems of nearly all the world’s nations.

    2. (b)

      Stricter rules on the use of combustion engines, with their wasteful dependence on fossil fuels, that can be less expensively energized using other energy sources, to cool and heat living spaces, and for use in transportation.

    3. (c)

      The use of recycled products to generate energy, which has received considerable attention since the 1980s, with considerable success. Virtually all organic products can be recycled to generate energy, including solid and liquid waste, paper products, and garbage, to name a few.

    4. (d)

      The use of natural gas, wind and solar power and strictly controlled nuclear energy to replace our current overdependence on oil and related petroleum products.

  10. 10.

    Research and evaluation are central components for assessing changes over time in the capacity of nations to advance their quality of life and well-being.

    1. (a)

      Mechanisms for implementing this well-being priority are clearly identified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Campaign and its 17 fully operationalized goals.

    2. (b)

      Comparable systems for assessing changes in national and global well-being also have been articulated by the Development Assistance Committee of the European-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2018), Freedom House (2018), the Aid Commission of the World Bank (2018), as well as many major international nongovernmental organizations (Save the Children, 2017; Transparency International, 2018).

    3. (c)

      The commitment to on-going data-driven approaches to development planning and implementation at the global level is critical to effective action at the national, regional, and global levels.

This author, and the many others associated with the preparation of this book, look forward to continued progress in well-being and to steady increases in the quality of life and well-being of people everywhere across the planet. Enthusiastic implementation of the principles that inform the preceding action agenda will take us a long way toward the attainment of these objectives. The late and highly influential Portuguese educator and activist, Paulo Freire (1921–1997), writing in support of these principles in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 2014), taught us, “liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world to transform it” (p. 56).

Final Thoughts

Though intentionally written in a relatively brief format, the research reported in this volume reflects 50 years of research into the changing sociopolitical-economic capacity of nations to provide for at least the basic and intermediate needs of their steadily increasing populations, especially those of their most vulnerable population groups.

Space limitations have prevented me from going into depth on many topics that are of special interest to me but, even so, the broad strokes of development as a critical component of quality of life and well-being have been presented at multiple levels of analysis. I hope that I have done so with clarity. I also hope that I have succeeded in reaching the reader with many of the most critical lessons that have been learned concerning the most salient drivers of development, quality of life, and well-being over nearly half a century. The next steps toward building a more positive future for all of us, though, must be taken by you, the reader, and those, informed by knowledge and true passion, I leave you to take on your own.

The above sentiment is summed by the following quotation from the much celebrated and prolific nineteenth century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855).

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Kierkegaard (2006), Fear and trembling

Similar ideas also were expressed by other philosophers and theoretical social scientists writing during the same time period. But Kierkegaard was the most prolific writer on the subject. Struggling with the sense of living life through time, Kierkegaard taught us one of the most valuable principles of living life in the present while building on the past and anticipating the future. This is a lesson that each of us needs to learn and, in turn, once learned, informs our sense of preparing for the future using the past and present as frames of reference for living in the present—a key component of the concept of time-based human well-being.