ABSTRACT
In healthcare, the surgeon takes his inspiration to achieve patient quality of life and well-being from civilization. At a practical level he is guided by the rules and regulations offered by national/international healthcare policy, healthcare institutional leadership and best evidence. The birth of civilization there coincided directly with the introduction of early mathematical principles and tools that were most frequently associated with application to economic and financial transactions. The determinants of societal growth and advancement are also powerfully linked to the application of available energy. The benefits of quantifying civilization through economic markets include the reality that many economic trends can be explained through large-scale human behaviour. Changes in global stock prices can be reflective of short-term and long-term human judgments and decisions. The measurement of global gross domestic product is by definition a calculation of an aggregate value so that it does not precisely consider robust characteristics or endpoints for well-being or civilization.
