Question

Is a person's standard of living the same as their quality of life? why or why not?

Answer 1

There is a difference between standard of living and the quality of life.

Standard of living refers to the level of goods and service consumed by an individual in a particular time period. Higher the consumption indicates high standard of living. It refers to the tangible comforts of an economic group. It can be called as the richness of life. It basically depends on the income. Higher income leads to high standard of living. Standard of living is purely an economic phenomenon which indicates income, cost of goods and services, etc. The calculation of standard of living includes income, poverty, cost of goods and services, economic and political stability, safety, climate, environment, infrastructure, inflation, etc. Human Development Index is there to measure the standard of living.

Quality of life is level of happiness, health, comfort of a person or group of persons. It relates to the degree of happiness, freedom, pleasure in life, etc. It do not depends on the income. It otherwise can be defined as the completeness of life. It can be measured by factors like freedom, protection, education, human dignity, right to vote, right to speak, freedom of religion, freedom of thought and privacy, etc. Physical quality of life index can be used to calculate the quality of life. It is however, another indicator to measure the economic development.