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Good-day Rhode Island, I’m Mike Stenhouse from the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity.
And I welcome you to our public policy debate series: “What’s Really In Your Best Intrest?”
In this edition, we’ll explore whether public policy culture that simply looks to address
the material needs of economically disadvantage Rhode Islanders is missing much deeper and
more important factors. Namely, people’s social needs and the impact on their families.
Our guest today is Dr. Wendy Warcholik, a PhD economist and lead researcher for the
new Family Prosperity Index. Wendy, welcome to our show.
Thank you, Mike.
You know this index that you’ve created is very personal to you. Tell us your personal
story and why you’re so interested in this new metric.
Sure, well I’m economist. I’m also somebody who has personally experienced the cost of
divorce. I’m that child who was sitting before the court appointed psychiatrist, pulled
out of school every week, because my mom wanted the judge to reduce the amount of time I spent
with my dad.
I’m that girl who wasn’t living my parents, so my parents weren’t always looking out
for my welfare. So, I didn’t always know how I was going to pay for food and clothing.
My parents were divorced multiple times. And, as a family we bore the costs of those divorces.
Both me, and my siblings. Unfortunately, I was the only one of my siblings to overcome
those costs. So, it is personal for me. That’s why we have built an index that is a broader
measure of wellbeing.
And, as you experienced and as your index shows, your index really kind of correlates
economic social factors. And shows, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two.
Is that correct?
That is correct. While we look at, while we have economic measures like gross domestic
product, and measures tax burden like the Tax Foundation’s Tax Climate Index, to date
there is no measure that brings economic and social factors together to show the total
full human behavior of a person.
And, I think that one of the conclusions is that the strong families equals a strong economy
and vice versus. Correct?
Yes, absolutely. our Family Prosperity Index will show how families effect the economy,
and how the economy will effect families.
So, tell us. The skeptics will say why does the world need another index. After all, we
have the unemployment rate. Why do we need something else?
Well, the unemployment rate is one number. And we look at 6 major categories. Sure, economics
is one of the major categories we look at, but there are many other factors that are
important. We look at self-sufficiency, which includes self reliance, government decency,
we look at substance abuse, family health.
We look at family culture, which is a host of different variables, your prison population,
religious attendance, so there are many other factors that are not addressed in looking
at our total well-being.
Well thank you, Wendy. We’re going to continue our discussion in our next segment. We’ll
be right back with more from: “What’s Really In Your Best Interest?”