The U.S. locks up more people than any other country in the world. In 2017, U.S. federal and state prisons housed over 2 million people, or 1.6 percent of the adult population. The U.S. has five percent of the world’s population and has created 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.

With much of the world’s population in residential lockdown today, deeply thoughtful and concerned people throughout the world are wondering what has brought the world to this current disturbing state of affairs, and what are the immediate and the long-term solutions.

While initiatives like ‘AmaZen’ claim to cater to spiritual wellbeing of employees, Amazon’s online business model has left communities bereft of local self-reliance, ruptured human connections, and kept people away from finding meaningful work that pays livable wages.

It is often difficult to judge whether different proposals and theories in government, social media, or corporate media are credible and deserving of our support. Prout’s focus is always on what is benevolent for humanity and the planet. For this reason, we suggest using the following eleven criteria as a tool to help evaluate the worthiness of real world proposals.