Characteristics of Society

Some examples of characteristics in society that are not the biggest benefit for all people everywhere include representation in governance, the distribution of power and control over resources, and war.

Representation in governance

If the distribution of personality characteristic spectrums in the people in governing roles is not a close approximation to the distribution of personality characteristic spectrums in all people everywhere, then that is clearly not the biggest benefit for all people.

Quoted from The Biggest Benefit Group website:

“The distribution of personality characteristic spectrums in the people in governing roles in New Zealand is not a close approximation to the distribution of personality characteristic spectrums in all people everywhere (2025).”

Power and control over resources

If some people have more power and control over resources than other people by many orders of magnitude, and many people have less power and control over resources that is necessary for subsistence, and many people have only sufficient power and control over resources for subsistence or not much more than subsistence, then that amounts to slavery and is clearly not the biggest benefit for all people.

Quoted from Oxfam website (Oxfam - https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years, 2023):

“Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years … A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.”

Quoted from the BBC website (Vallance, 2023):

“Artificial intelligence (AI) could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says.”

War

1. If one society A inflicts bodily harm including injury and death on members of another society B to resolve a perceived conflict, then that is clearly not the biggest benefit for all people.

Quoted from the World Bank website (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2020):

“Total Armed Forces Personnel, World: 27,406,000”

Quoted from the Save the Children website (War in Ukraine, 2025):

“Three years of full-scale war in Ukraine has shattered children’s lives ... more than 2,500 children have been killed or injured in the past three years, with homes, schools and hospitals continually bombed. Around 25% of Ukraine is now covered in mines and explosive remnants, placing children at further risk of death or injury ...”

Quoted from Save the Children website (Gaza: At least 3,100 children aged under five killed with others at risk as famine looms, 2024):

“About 30% of the 11,300 identified children killed in Gaza between last October [2023] and 31 August [2024] were younger than five, according to a newly published breakdown of the ages of about 34,000 people whose deaths have been verified by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Of those about 710 were babies aged under 12 months. Another 2,800 children killed have yet to be identified.”

Quoted from Save the Children website (Over 2% of Gaza's child population killed or injured in six months of war, 2024):

“In the six months since the 7 October [2023] attacks in which 33 children were killed, more than 13,800 children have been killed in Gaza and 113 in the West Bank, and over 12,009 children have been injured in Gaza and at least 725 children in the West Bank, according to OCHA and the Ministry of Health in Gaza. UNICEF reported at least 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated ...”

Quoted from International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons website (ICANW, 2024):

“It is estimated that more than 38,000 children were killed in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to surveys by the city of Hiroshima, 73,622 children under 10 years of age were exposed to the bombing, of whom 7,907 had died by the end of 1945. Among older children and adolescents, the death toll was thought to be 15,543. In Nagasaki, authorities estimated that 49,684 children under 10 were exposed to the bombing, of whom 6,349 had died by the end of 1945, with 8,724 older children and adolescents also counted among the dead. These official estimates, however, do not include the many children who died years after the attacks from cancers and other radiation-related illnesses.”

1.2 References

Gaza: At least 3,100 children aged under five killed with others at risk as famine looms. (2024, October 10). Retrieved from Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-least-3100-children-aged-under-five-killed-others-risk-famine-looms

ICANW. (2024, August). The impact of nuclear weapons on children. Retrieved from International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons: https://www.icanw.org/children

International Institute for Strategic Studies, T. M. (2020).

Armed forces personnel, total. Retrieved from World Bank Group: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ms.mil.totl.p1

Over 2% of Gaza's child population killed or injured in six months of war. (2024, April 4). Retrieved from Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.net/news/over-2-gaza-s-child-population-killed-or-injured-six-months-war

Oxfam - https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years. (2023, January 16). Retrieved from https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years

Plato. (375 BC). The Republic. Athens: Academy.

War in Ukraine. (2025). Retrieved from Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.net/what-we-do/emergencies/war-ukraine