"People's overall
well-being. Quality of life is difficult to measure (whether for an
individual, group, or nation) because in addition to material
well-being (see standard of living)
it includes such intangible components as the quality of the
environment, national security, personal safety, and political and
economic freedoms."
"The
most important fact to understand about QoL indicators is that all
measures of quality are proxies—indirect measures of the true condition
we are seeking to judge. If quality could be quantified, it would cease
to be quality. Instead, it would be quantity. Quantitative measures
should not be judged as true or false, but only in terms of their
adequacy in bringing us closer to an ultimately unattainable goal. They
can never directly ascertain quality. Plato alluded to this in his
metaphor of the cave. We can only have knowledge of the shadows
projected on the back of the cave. We can never gain direct access to
the truth, which is the light that creates the shadows. There is no way
to step outside the metaphoric character of any definition of quality."
Source:
Clifford Cobb, Measurement Tools and the Quality of Life Redefining Progress, San Francisco California
Main Entry: standard of living 1: the necessities, comforts, and luxuries enjoyed or aspired to by an individual or group 2:
a minimum of necessities, comforts, or luxuries held essential to
maintaining a person or group in customary or proper status or
circumstances
