October 23, 2003

Morality Index

Can you measure morality? What standard would you use? Well, my old physics buddy, Carl Drews, has decided that a new born (not to mention two older children) doesn't keep him busy enough, so he's trying to measure the aggregate morality of the United States at his new website The Morality Index. Carl decided to use the 10 commandments to be his guide to morality. So far he has determined figures for murder, theft, and adultery, although due to the difficulty in measuring it, he's using marriage and divorce as proxies. I have to say, using just those three indicies, things are not looking good, as the trend is almost a straight line increase in immorality since 1950.

Good luck, Carl, I can't wait to see how you measure such things as not coveting and honoring your mother and father.

UPDATE: OK, I was wrong - I misread the graph. The trend has been ever upward since 1950, largely based on increasing lifespan. I'm sorry I got it wrong, Carl, and I'm sorry but I think you need to go back to the drawing board - the commandment is "Don't Kill", not "Live Long and Prosper".

And as Carl notes, while I call him my physics buddy, he defected to electrical engineering during college (as I later defected to aeronautical engineering for grad school).

Posted by Kevin Murphy at October 23, 2003 09:25 PM | Culture
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Wait! In the graph on the main page, up is good! So the graph since 1950 shows a steady INcrease in morality. (This increase is due mainly to the increase in lifespan, which tends to overwhelm the other sub-indexes.)

Coveting is probably going to be luxury spending vs. savings. Honoring your parents should be - maybe the number of phone calls made on Mother's Day and Father's Day, vs. the instances of elderly abuse? I'll have to think a lot more about that one.

Posted by: Carl Drews at October 24, 2003 10:37 AM

The confusion is totally my own fault for not labeling my axes more clearly. Now you know why Kevin got better grades in college Physics than I did! I will label the graph better right away.

Posted by: Carl Drews at October 24, 2003 10:48 AM