What makes an education socially valuable?

Education & Human Flourishing What Makes an Education Socially Valuable? We know how to calculate what a degree earns. We have a much harder time counting what an educated person makes possible in the lives of others. Victor Counted September 2026 The Flourishing Journal I have spent more of my life inside universities than most people spend in their first career. I earned two doctorates on two continents, one in health psychology (Western Sydney University, Australia) and one in religious studies (The University of Groningen, Netherlands). By the logic of a spreadsheet, I should be able to tell you exactly what that education was worth. But unfortunately, naively, I cannot.…

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Place Dissatisfaction and the Spatial Cost of Unemployment

Place Dissatisfaction and the Spatial Cost of Unemployment | The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Work & Place Global Flourishing Study  ·  Employment & Place Satisfaction Place Dissatisfaction and theSpatial Cost of Unemployment The unemployed are the least place-satisfied group on earth — ranking below immigrants, the divorced, and the young. They have not moved. Their city has not changed. Something else has. Global Flourishing Study data across 22 countries illuminate what unemployment actually costs, and why income replacement is only part of the answer. Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal May 2026 9 min read 65% Unemployed satisfied with their city #34 Lowest of all demographic groups studied 84% Employed…

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The Most City-Satisfied People on Earth Are Over 80

The Most City-Satisfied People on Earth Are Over 80 | The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Place & City Global Flourishing Study  ·  Place Satisfaction The Most City-Satisfied People on EarthAre Over 80 Across 22 countries and tens of thousands of respondents, the Global Flourishing Study surfaces a result that overturns almost everything we assume about age, cities, and the quality of urban life. Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal Research Report 93% Adults 80+ satisfied with their city 75% Adults 18–24 satisfied with their city 18pt Gap between oldest and youngest adults The Global Flourishing Study did not set out to say anything particular about the elderly. It set out…

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Bonding with God Book is Finally Here

Bonding with God Is Here | The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Bonding with GodIs Finally Here A word from the author on a book years in the making Victor Counted  ·  April 2026  ·  4 min read What if the way you relate to God is not a fixed fate, but a living story — one that can grow, heal, and flourish? Today is a day I have been quietly working toward for a long time. Bonding with God: Attachment Theory and the Psychology of Faith is now officially published and available through Baker Academic. This book began as a question — one that I kept returning to in…

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