Not every number the framework uses needs this machinery. A figure that only informs a debate can come from anyone. A figure that pays someone or triggers a rule cannot, because whoever sets it decides who gets what. Eight kinds of figure cross that line.
The eight
| Figure | What it sets | Built from | What makes it hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| The floor measure | what every person receives each month, region by region | rents for floor-standard homes, food prices, the cost of getting around | defining “floor-standard” consistently; regions where floor homes are rare |
| The supply gap | where a public builder of last resort starts building | rents against the cost of building and running new homes | building costs vary by site; land is the swing factor |
| The care gap | how much commission pays for care, and where care pay rises | care needed, unmet hours, waiting times, caregiver burnout | much care is unpaid and unrecorded, and must stay that way |
| The formation gap | where formation falls below its floor, and where teaching and mentoring pay rises | unfilled posts, waiting lists, reach to programs | measuring places without ever scoring children |
| Sustainable output | how much new money is issued | output, minus depletion and damage, with repair not counted | the money value of nature is contested; physical accounts sit beside it |
| Concentration | when a holder of scarce goods or an essential layer takes on limits or duties | holdings by class of scarce good; dependence on critical layers | ownership hidden behind trusts and companies |
| Circulation | whether money is pooling, leaking, or standing still | where spending goes, holdings at the top, flows across borders | large holdings are reported privately, not published |
| Need adjustments | the floor’s adjustments for disability or care | an assessment of one person’s need, done once | this is the only individual measure, and it must stay narrow |
The last row is different in kind. Every other figure describes a place, a market, or the whole economy. A need adjustment describes one person, so it is assessed once, by people independent of whoever pays it, and never becomes an ongoing score. Everything else on these pages concerns the first seven.
One set of bodies, not eight
The seven aggregate figures share most of their raw material: rents, prices, wages, building costs, care hours, holdings, and output. An estimator that has built the data to price the floor in a region already holds most of what it needs for the supply gap and much of the care gap.
So the framework does not need a separate set of estimators for every figure. One plural pool of estimators, each producing estimates across the whole set, is enough. A statistics agency, a university center, a civic institute, and a body from another country can each estimate the floor, the gaps, and circulation for the same regions, and each figure is then set from their estimates in the same way.
Sharing bodies across figures has three benefits:
- Lower cost. The expensive part, gathering and cleaning data, is done once per estimator, not once per figure.
- Better checks. An estimator whose floor measure and supply gap contradict each other shows its own error.
- Less bureaucracy. Many measures could grow into an apparatus of their own. A small number of capable estimators, each covering many figures, keeps that in check.
Some figures still need specialists. Concentration depends on ownership records and the work of seeing through trusts and companies. Sustainable output depends on environmental accounts in tons, hectares, and water volumes. Specialist estimators can join the pool for those figures alone.
What every estimate must include
An estimate is accepted only if it arrives with:
- the figure itself, for each region or class it covers;
- the method, in enough detail that another estimator could reproduce it;
- the data, or where the data cannot be published, a description precise enough to obtain it;
- the uncertainty, as a range, not only a point;
- what changed since the estimator’s last estimate, and why.
An estimate that cannot be checked cannot be counted. That rule, more than any other, keeps the system open: anyone can see how each number was made.