I think there are several quality metrics for gauging societal improvement: - healthcare access and outcome statistics - poverty & homelessness statistics - edu

I think there are several quality metrics for gauging societal improvement: - healthcare access and outcome statistics - poverty & homelessness statistics - education levels - access to clean water in sufficient quantity - access to healthful foods in sufficient quantity - levels of environmental contaminants - delta in income of top and bottom economic tiers And so on. Toss in a few bullet points intended to flag totalitarian/authoritarian/fascist tendencies, worker exploitation, and the like and I think that while likely not a comprehensive blueprint that's more than enough to get started. Especially considering how poorly so many industrialized, first world, "democratic" countries in the world do on so many of these basics. That said I agree there's no ROI on improving household items like clocks. The problem is there's also no obvious ROI on resolving homelessness.