Quality of Life Indexes
- Arguably, one of the most widely valued social indicators is happiness. Social researchers often use the term quality of life (QOL) to describe what is commonly called “happiness.” One of the leading pioneers of happiness research is Dr. Ruut Veenhoven Happy Life Years#References, emeritus-professor of 'social conditions for human happiness' at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is also one of the chief critics of one of the most widely used QOL indexes, the Human Development Index (HDI) published by the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP). His 1996 paper “Happy Life-Expectancy, A Comprehensive Measure of Quality-of Life in Nations”, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research, proposed an alternative QOL index, called ‘happy life expectancy,’ (HLE). HLE may be a better indicator of happiness as it relies on subjective measures of happiness, as opposed to the largely materialistic measures that go into creating the HDI.
Read more about this topic: Happy Life Expectancy
Famous quotes containing the words quality of life, quality of, quality, life and/or indexes:
“Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannnot endure it.... Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)
“Even through the hollow eyes of death
I spy life peering.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)