Quality of life is considered as a system of indicators characterizing the degree of implementation of people’s life strategies and satisfaction of their life needs. Programmatic improvements in the quality of life are considered as a social project aimed at increasing people’s opportunities to solve their problems, achieve personal success and individual happiness.
The quality of life- a set of indicators of the general well-being of people, characterizing the level of material consumption (standard of living), as well as the consumption of directly unpaid benefits.
Quality of life involves:
Clean environment;
Personal and national security;
Political and economic freedoms;
Other conditions of human well-being that are difficult to quantify.
The quality of life- this is a category that is not as standardized as the concept of “quality” presented in international ISO standards. Each community develops this concept independently, based on its ideals. In many countries, the idea of quality has become a national idea. Quality of life is usually understood as the financial security of the community, unity with nature, responsibility to future generations and much more.
Characterizing the essence quality of life As a socio-economic category, it is necessary to emphasize a number of its features:
Firstly, quality of life is an extremely broad, multidimensional, multifaceted concept, incomparably broader than “standard of living.” This is a category that goes far beyond economics. This is first of all sociological a category that covers all spheres of society, since they all contain people’s lives and their quality.
Secondly, quality of life has two sides: objective and subjective. The criterion for an objective assessment of the quality of life is the scientific standards of people's needs and interests, in relation to which one can objectively judge the degree of satisfaction of these needs and interests.
On the other hand, the needs and interests of people are individual and the degree of their satisfaction can only be assessed by the subjects themselves. They are not fixed by any statistical values and practically exist only in the minds of people and, accordingly, in their personal opinions and assessments.
Thus, assessment of quality of life comes in two forms:
the degree of satisfaction of scientifically based needs and interests;
satisfaction with the quality of life of the people themselves.
Third, quality of life is not a category separated from other socio-economic categories, but unites many of them and includes them in a qualitative aspect.
Thus, the components of quality of life include lifestyle, standard of living, and the environment, enriched with qualitative assessments. For example, when characterizing the quality of life, one cannot limit oneself to assessing nutrition by its nutritional value (calorie content, content in grams of proteins, fats). It is impossible to ignore such qualities of nutrition as its regularity, variety, and taste. When characterizing the quality of working life, one cannot limit oneself (as when analyzing the standard of living) to indicators of employment, unemployment, length of the working day, week, year, and the level of occupational injuries, but it is necessary to assess the compliance with the interests of workers of the content and nature of work, its intensity, relationships within the work collective and etc.
The quality of life- this is the degree of development and completeness of satisfaction of the entire complex of needs and interests of people, manifested both in various types of activities and in the very sense of life. The problem of quality of life includes the conditions, results and nature of work, demographic, ethnographic and environmental aspects of people’s existence. There are legal and political aspects to this problem related to rights and freedoms, behavioral and psychological aspects, and a general ideological and cultural background.
As for well-being in general, this is a kind of synthesis, a generalizing view of the social organism, including all of the above aspects.
Achieving the highest possible quality of life for the population is a priority goal of a social market economy. One of the most important prerequisites for the implementation of this task is the implementation of an effective policy for the welfare of the population. The central place in welfare policy is occupied by the income of the population, their differentiation, and the constant increase in the standard of living of citizens.
The quality of life for people is inseparable from the goals that they set for their lives, that is, it is associated with the effectiveness of life in the broad sense of the word, and not only with their satisfaction personal life, but also with satisfaction with their position in the country and in the world, which is reflected in the well-being of people.
There are two possible approaches:
· drawing up a consolidated list of indicators in accordance with the structure of needs and interests;
· a more preferable analytical approach, in which indicators of quality of life are first of all grouped by spheres of life in accordance with the structure of the processes of people's lives themselves, followed by a synthetic generalization.
Both methodologically and for practical purposes, it is very important to assess the quality of life not only in general, but also in each of its main areas.
These areas include:
· working life;
· the sphere of development of people's abilities;
· family life;
· life and health maintenance;
· life of the disabled;
· environment;
· life in experimental economic situations.
A special area of people's lives is formed by concern for the future.
Each of these areas has its own specific components that require a qualitative assessment. If you combine them into a single system, you get a very complex and extensive structure. For example, the transition to a market economy changed the quality of labor, since for the bulk of the economically active population it became hired labor, depending on the relationship between supply and demand, on the economic situation. The positivity of socio-economic transformations is expressed in the fact that workers have received greater freedom in choosing where to work, and competition in the labor market has become an additional incentive for the development of personal abilities and their use.
UN list of countries by quality of life
Russia ranked sixth in the list of countries in the world compiled by the UN according to a number of criteria, collectively called “the quality of life in them.” Norway has already occupied first place on this list for a year in a row. Second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively, are Sweden, Canada, Belgium and Australia. In sixth place is the USA. Iceland is in seventh place, the Netherlands is in eighth place, Japan is in ninth place, and Finland rounds out the top ten.
In the second ten are countries where life is not as good and cloudless as in the countries of the top ten, but still at a fairly high level for the 21st century. In it, places from 11 to 20 went to Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Italy, respectively.
Sierra Leone closes the list in 173rd place. According to the UN, in Eastern Europe, in the countries of the former USSR, as well as in many African countries, living standards are now lower than at the end of “ cold war” (i.e. in the late 80s - early 90s). People there live poorer and die earlier.
Officially, the UN list is called the “Best Countries to Live In” list. When compiling it, factors such as level of education, life expectancy and per capita income were taken into account.
Bibliography:
1. Bobkov V., Maslovsky-Mstislavsky P. Dynamics of living standards of the population.//Economist.- 1994.-No. 6.
2. Abakumova N.N., Podovalova R.Ya. Revenue Policy and wages: Tutorial. – Novosibirsk: NGAEiU, 1999.
3. Institute for Quality of Life, Internet address http://qol.ur.ru/index.html
Standard of living is a socio-economic characteristic of the degree to which the physical, spiritual and social needs of people are met. It is determined, on the one hand, by the degree of development of people’s needs themselves, and on the other, by the quantity and quality of life’s goods and services used to satisfy them. Among the personal needs of people there are:
1) material. These include needs for food, clothing, housing, treatment, transportation, etc.;
2) spiritual. These include needs satisfied by institutions of science, culture, art, education, children's education;
3) social. These include the needs to ensure old age, to increase free time, to equality between men and women, to freedom and universality of labor, to the unity of fundamental public interests.
Living standards can be assessed on a global scale; for the country as a whole (taking into account the size of its national wealth); in relation to certain regions, social and demographic groups and segments of the population, and individuals.
Standard of living in a broad sense characterized by a set of living conditions of people: real income of the population, the level of consumption of food and non-food products, the level of wages and payments from public consumption funds, working conditions, duration of working and free time, housing conditions, the development of education systems, health care, culture, the state of the environment and etc.
Standard of living in the narrow sense is the amount of real income. Knowing their sizes, one can judge many aspects of a person’s life. The quality of food, living conditions, complete recreation, and even beliefs depend on the amount of real income. The standard of living of a family depends on the income level of family members and its composition.
Distinguish four levels of living of the population:
prosperity - the use of benefits that creates opportunities for the comprehensive development of a person;
normal level – rational consumption according to scientifically based standards, ensuring the complete restoration of a person’s intellectual and physical strength;
poverty – consumption of goods that only allows one to maintain working capacity (the lowest limit of the reproduction of labor resources);
Poverty is the consumption of the minimum acceptable set of goods and services according to biological criteria to maintain human viability.
There are different definitions of poverty. According to the UN concept, poverty – a state of prolonged forced absence of the necessary resources to ensure a satisfactory lifestyle. Currently, poverty is understood not only as a lack of money, but also as a limitation in the ability to realize a person’s potential due to the lack of decent work, comfortable housing, and access to adequate education and healthcare.
Poor is considered to be someone who has an income below the poverty line. Poverty threshold - this is the amount of money officially established as the minimum income with which an individual or family is able to purchase food, clothing and housing. The poverty threshold depends on the economic level of development of the country: in developed countries it is higher, in developing countries it is lower. The lower the level of requirements, the fewer people fall below the poverty line, and vice versa.
There are absolute and relative concepts of poverty.
Under absolute poverty is understood as a condition in which a person cannot satisfy even the basic needs for food, housing, clothing, warmth with his income, or can only satisfy the minimum needs that ensure biological survival. The quantitative criterion is the poverty threshold. In Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, in most cases, the absolute poverty line is used, determined on the basis minimum consumer basket, the content of which varies by country. The World Bank uses 1 (minimum standard of living) or 2 (poverty line in countries with middle income per capita) US dollars per day at parity as absolute poverty thresholds purchasing power(PPS). PPP is a price index that characterizes the relationship between two (or several) currencies according to their purchasing power for a certain set of goods and services. In 2001, 1.1 billion people. lived on less than $1 a day, less than $2 a day - more than half the population of developing countries (or 2.7 billion people).
Relative poverty assumes the possibility of satisfying physiological needs, but the presence of problems in the sphere of social or political relations, recreation, etc. In the concept of relative poverty, a certain ratio between the lowest income and the size of the average (median) income is taken as the poverty line. Persons whose incomes in relation to the average (median) level are below the established ratio are classified as poor. Thus, in the USA, a family is considered poor if it spends more than one third of its income on food.
The boundaries of absolute and relative poverty do not coincide. Absolute poverty may be eliminated in a country, but relative poverty will remain. Inequality is inevitable in developed societies. Relative poverty persists even as living standards for all segments of society improve.
To assess poverty the following are used indicators:
1. The income gap of poor households is the amount Money necessary to raise the incomes of poor households to the poverty line. The indicator is used to assess the cost of activities according to social support and is calculated by household different types, since each household has its own poverty line due to the unequal composition and combination of gender and age characteristics of its members;
2. The low income gap is the ratio of the income deficit to the poverty line (the subsistence level). The indicator is calculated as a percentage and is used for chronological and territorial comparisons. The product of the low income gap and the number of poor people shows the amount of social transfers needed to end absolute poverty;
3. The FGT index (Foster-Greer-Thorbecke) is one of the synthetic poverty indices that allows you to give its multidimensional assessment:
where Y i is per capita income;
Z – the cost of living (poverty line);
N is the size of a separate socio-demographic group or the population as a whole;
n – number of poor;
Q – index degree.
Three index options are calculated. The zero degree index (Q=0), or poverty coefficient, determines the share of the population with incomes below the subsistence level; The indicator shows only the prevalence of poverty, but does not allow us to determine how much the income (expenditure or consumption) of the poor is below the poverty line. Index of the first degree (Q=1) is average value missing income (as a percentage of the cost of living), that is, the income that must be paid extra to each poor person in order to overcome poverty, this is an indicator of the severity of poverty. The index of the second degree (Q=2) reflects the depth of poverty: this index is very sensitive to the share of the poorest in the total population of the poor, since here the amount of individual missing income is squared. Indicators of the depth of poverty (degree of impoverishment) and the severity of poverty characterize not only the spread of poverty, but also the scarcity of the material condition of this part of the population;
4. The poverty level (poverty ratio, or poverty scale) is the proportion of the poor in the total population;
5. Synthetic poverty indicator (Sen-index):
, (16.8)
where S – Sen-index;
L – share of the poor population;
N – period of low income;
– average income of poor households;
P – poverty line;
G p – Gini coefficient for poor households.
The Sen index is a weighted sum of the income deficits of households classified as poor. The indicator assesses the impact on poverty of such factors as the level of lack of material resources of the poor, the degree of stratification of the poor by income and the distribution of this phenomenon, and varies from 0 to 1. When S = 0, there is not a single household in the poor group or the poor have equal shares of income. When S = 1, all households are included in the poor group or all income of poor families belongs to one household.
All poor or distressed countries are characterized by the so-called “ vicious circle of poverty " Since the income of the population in these countries is very low, people only have enough money to meet their most basic needs. Therefore, they have no money left for savings and capital accumulation. Without savings there is no investment. And where there is no investment in high technology, labor productivity will remain extremely low. Low productivity of social labor, in turn, leads to low income levels and the economic backwardness of the country.
Living standard indicators are divided into into general and private, economic and socio-demographic, objective and subjective, cost and natural, quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative indicators of living standards show the volume of consumption of material goods and services. Quality indicators reflect the qualitative side of the well-being of the population (level of education, qualifications, structure of consumption of goods, services, food, provision of durable goods).
TO cost indicators of living standards include all indicators in monetary form (volume of services, transportation, trade turnover, cash deposits and savings, etc.). Natural indicators have natural units of measurement (kg, pcs., sq.m., cubic meters, etc.) - provision of housing, property, cultural goods, consumption of food, energy.
ABOUT general indicators reflect the overall achievements of social economic development countries. These are the size (per capita) of national income, the consumption fund (products of economic sectors that go directly to consumer purposes), etc. Particular indicators are determined by the level of development of society, but have greater detail and are specified for individual population groups, territories, etc. (level of consumption of food and other goods and services; provision of housing and amenities; level of socio-cultural services; working conditions; social security; conditions for raising children).
Dividing standard of living indicators into objective And subjective is associated with the characteristics of changes in people’s lives: the former have an objective (technical, economic, etc.) basis, the latter have a subjective opinion, a subjective assessment of satisfaction with income, work, family relations, the lifestyle of individuals and population groups. The subjective assessment is reflected in the concept of quality of life.
Economic indicators of living standards give an idea of the level of economic development of society and the well-being of each person (employment, nominal and real incomes) and are manifested in the size and differentiation of incomes of the population. Socio-demographic indicators characterize the professional, qualification and age-sex composition of the population, the physical reproduction of the workforce and are related to the development of the social sphere of the economy (changes in population, life expectancy).
To compare living standards in international comparisons, indicators such as:
1.Value of per capita GDP consumption at purchasing power parity (PPP). In 2001, according to this indicator, the Republic of Belarus occupied first place among the CIS countries. In comparison, the per capita personal consumption fund of Russia according to PPP was 75.3%, Ukraine - 50.8, Kazakhstan - 79.4, Uzbekistan - 87.4, Kyrgyzstan - 37.0, Tajikistan - 21.1%. Among countries with developed market economies, the first three places are occupied by the USA, Switzerland and the UK. The per capita personal consumption fund in these countries exceeds that of the Republic of Belarus by 5.1, 4.2 and 3.4 times, respectively.
2. Average monthly salary taking into account the PPP of national currencies. Thus, in 2001, its level compared to the Republic of Belarus was 84.0% in Russia, 103.1% in Kazakhstan, and 66.0% in Ukraine.
3. The Human Development Index (HDI), or the Human Development Index (HDI), is the arithmetic average of three indices (the country level is correlated with the highest levels of the corresponding indicators):
1) GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (maximum level – 40,000 US dollars);
2) expected life expectancy at birth (considered equal to 85 years);
3) level of education (characterized by adult literacy and education coverage at all levels at 100%).
The index value varies from 0 to 1. If the HDI (HDI) is less than 0.5, the country belongs to the group of countries with low level development; from 0.5 to 0.8 – with average; from 0.8 to 1.0 – s high level development. According to UNDP estimates in 1997, the first three places for this indicator were occupied by Canada, Norway and the USA. Russia was in 71st place, Lithuania – 62nd, Belarus – 60th, Estonia – 54th.
The system of indicators of living standards, developed by the UN in 1978, includes 12 main groups of indicators: 1) fertility, mortality and other demographic characteristics of the population; 2) sanitary and hygienic living conditions; 3) consumption of food products; 4) living conditions; 5) education and culture; 6) working conditions and employment; 7) income and expenses of the population; 8) cost of living and consumer prices; 9) vehicles; 10) organization of recreation; 11) social security; 12) personal freedom.
In Belarus, the main socio-economic indicators of living standards are nominal and real income per capita, nominal and real accrued average monthly wage, average and real monthly pension.
Along with the concept of “standard of living,” the key to understanding the development paths of any society is the concept of “quality of life.” The quality of life is an assessment of the totality of conditions of social, mental and physical well-being as understood by an individual or group of people. The quality of life of the population of a particular state is determined by economic, social, demographic, environmental, geographical, political and moral factors.
Towards objective factors may include: food consumption, provision of goods and services, housing conditions, level of employment, education, social security, etc.
Among the subjective factors distinguish: a person’s satisfaction with work and living conditions, social status, financial situation, etc. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, characterizing the quality of life, identifies eight main aspects of human life: health, development through education, employment and quality of working life, leisure and recreation, the state of the consumer market for goods and services, the environment, personal safety, social opportunities and social activity.
The quality of life is also determined by the level of physical and mental health, cultural and intellectual potential. It depends on the amount of free time, expenses on services, recreation, cultural leisure, tourism and travel. One of the indicators of quality of life is the well-being of the family, in the formation of which important role play psychosocial and spiritual-moral aspects. The level of public awareness and availability of information, and the degree of civil and political freedoms have an important impact on the quality of life.
The standard of living appears in inextricable unity with the way of life of people. Lifestyle is a socio-economic category that expresses the type, way of life of people (society, social class, individual) in the national and global community. Lifestyle covers various aspects of human life:
Ø labor, forms of its social organization;
Ø everyday life, forms of using free time;
Ø participation in political and public life;
Ø forms of satisfying material and spiritual needs;
Ø rules and norms of human behavior that have become part of everyday practice.
Therefore, the way of life is affected not only by economic relations, but also by the socio-political system, culture and worldview of people in one or another formation, at one or another stage of social growth. In turn, lifestyle has an active influence on economic and socio-political processes in society.
The concepts of lifestyle and standard of living are interrelated, but are not identical. For example, indicators of living standards can also characterize lifestyle. However, the standard of living is only one of the conditions for the formation of a lifestyle and actively influences people’s livelihoods. At the same time, with the same standard of living, the lifestyle can differ significantly.
Introduction
1.2 Indicators for measuring the level and quality of life
Chapter 2. Main indicators of the level and quality of life of the population
2.1 Indicators of the level and quality of life of the Russian population
2.2 Main directions for improving the standard of living of the Russian population
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
In the era of globalization and deepening integration processes, expansion of foreign economic relations and various forms of economic cooperation, the availability of comparable information is a necessary condition for assessing the economic and social position of a country in the world. Currently, the results of comparisons are widely used by international organizations, national government agencies and non-governmental organizations different countries, journalists and scientists for analytical and practical work.
The standard of living occupies a central place in the socio-economic life of society. In civilized countries, the main task of the state is to ensure a decent level and quality of life for the population. In modern transformations of a market economy, the problem of increasing the level and quality of life is becoming very important. It is with the social function of state policy that society associates ever-increasing expectations regarding improving the quality and standard of living. The direction and pace of further transformations in the country and, ultimately, political and, consequently, economic stability in society largely depend on the solution to this problem. In this regard, it is necessary to clearly understand the essence of this concept and its role in the life of the state. IN last years The topic has become especially relevant, since due to the global economic crisis indicators of the level and quality of life have decreased significantly. The crisis has forced us to take a fresh look at indicators and indicators of the level and quality of life. It is very important to know on what indicators the quality and standard of living depends, therefore the need for a theoretical study of the relationship between the level of economic development of the country and the components of the quality of life of the population determines the relevance of my research and its practical significance.
The work of many economists has been devoted to studying the issues of increasing living standards. The works of K. Marx played a significant role in the development of their methodological foundations. Research in this area was carried out by S.L. Brew, J.M. Keynes, F. Kotler, A. Maslow, S. Fisher and others. Foreign authors have developed national models of living standards, indicators for their assessment, and regulatory mechanisms.
In our country, the development of systematic assessments of the standard of living of the population belongs to one of the outstanding scientists - Weinstein
Significant contributions were made by: Buzlyakov N.I., Kapustin E.I., Mayer V.F., Rimashevskaya N.M. and others. Separately, it should be noted the research of the All-Russian Center for Living Standards, conducted under the leadership of V.N. Bobkova. The works of domestic authors reflect the problems of increasing living standards, the development and classification of living standard indicators.
In recent decades, the meaning that scientists give to the term “standard of living” and the content put into it have undergone major changes. Until recently, experts in the field of measuring living standards had only two long-established, traditional approaches to solving this problem. Both approaches, as it turned out, have serious shortcomings, the understanding of which made it possible to raise the question of an ideal indicator of living standards from a theoretical point of view, that is, a benchmark to which one should strive in applied research and practical measurements. Existing disagreements in the methodology for determining the standard of living, an insufficiently targeted analysis of its indicators, and the high social cost of the economic reforms implemented in Russia necessitate a thorough study of these positions and confirm the relevance of the topic of this course work.
The main goal of this work is to analyze the specifics of the concepts of “standard of living” and “quality of life”, study the most important indicators and consider the state of the level and quality of life in Russian Federation.
In connection with this goal, the main tasks of the work have been set - to define the concepts of standard of living and quality of life, to describe measurement indicators, to reveal the importance of studying these concepts, and to determine based on the analysis current state level and quality of life of the population of Russia, as well as identify the main directions for increasing the standard of living of the Russian Federation.
The subject of research is defined as a set economic relations, determining the standard of living of the population. The object of the study is the standard of living of the population and the conditions influencing it as a certain cross-section of socio-economic relations.
Course work consists of 4 chapters, introduction, conclusion, bibliography and necessary appendix.
Chapter 1. Theoretical approaches to determining the level and quality of life of the population
1.1 The concept of the level and quality of life of the population
The concepts of “standard of living” and “quality of life” are the subject of study in many disciplines. In modern scientific literature, these concepts are interpreted differently depending on the goals and objectives of the study.
The production approach considers the standard of living depending on the level of development of productive forces, structure and efficiency social production. So, N.I. Buzlyakov notes: “... in economic literature the most common idea is of the standard of living as the amount of material, cultural, everyday and social goods consumed and the degree to which the needs for them are satisfied at the achieved stage of development of the productive forces.”
A slightly different approach to understanding the standard of living of the population is determined by I.I. Eliseeva: “The standard of living means the provision of the population with necessary material goods and services, achieved level their consumption and the degree of satisfaction of reasonable needs", "the monetary valuation of goods and services represents the cost of living."
Director of the All-Russian Center for Living Standards V. Bobkov considers the standard of living from the point of view of consumption: “In the modern interpretation, the concept of “standard of living” characterizes the income of people not as such, but their consumption of various consumer sets expressed in monetary and conditionally monetary form.”
A.G. Kryzhanovskaya gives the following definition: “Quality of life is a category with the help of which the significant circumstances of the life of the population are characterized, determining the degree of dignity and personal freedom of each person.”
It seems quite reasonable to define the standard of living in a narrow and broad sense.
In a narrow sense - through the characteristics of the level of consumption of the population and the degree of satisfaction of needs (changes in income, expenses and consumption of goods and services by the population). A need can be defined as a direct expression of a need that requires its satisfaction, due to which it acts as the initial cause of activity. One of the fundamental features of the development of needs is their cumulative nature of growth, namely: the emergence of new needs does not lead to the disappearance of old ones. Habits, tastes, inclinations and preferences of a person influence the formation of various needs. This influence is subjective. But the formation of needs is influenced not only by subjective factors. Various external levers, which can be economic, socio-psychological or organizational, act as an objective “stimulant” of needs. Taken together, they constitute objective factors in the formation of needs.
The classification of needs is extremely diverse. Many economists have attempted to sort out the diversity of people's needs. Thus, the outstanding economist A. Marshall notes that needs can be divided into absolute and relative, higher and lower, urgent and can be deferred, direct and indirect, present and future, and others. In educational economic literature, the division of needs into primary (material) and secondary (spiritual) is often used.
When studying the standard of living in the narrow sense, in most cases we are talking about material and most important spiritual needs.
Material needs, as a rule, include the needs for food, clothing, housing, household items, transport, health and others. Spiritual needs, in turn, include the needs for education and cultural development. It is important to emphasize that almost all needs have a material basis, that is, they require material costs, and the source of covering them is income. That is why income in relation to the standard of living should be interpreted as a need and as a source of satisfying needs. It should be noted that the identified set of needs can change in accordance with the level of socio-economic development of society and natural conditions human existence - some needs are excluded from the list of necessary ones, others, on the contrary, are added to their number. Human needs do not remain unchanged; they develop with the evolution of human civilization and this concerns, first of all, spiritual needs.
Thus, in the narrow sense of the word, the standard of living is expressed in the quantity and quality of goods and services consumed by a person, or, in other words, as the ratio of the level of income of the population to the cost of living.
IN broadly understood The standard of living is presented through the characteristics of the level of human development (the state of health and the ability of the population to meet needs) and the living conditions of the population (the state of the living environment and the safety of the population). In other words, the standard of living in this aspect is considered as a set of real socio-economic living conditions aimed at meeting the material and spiritual needs of the population.
A central place in quality of life research is given to the development of a methodology for assessing the quality of life, explaining the solution of such issues as constructing quality of life indicators, determining the values of these indicators, choosing methods for their assessment, resulting in a generalized judgment about the standard of living of an individual, a group of people, or a specific region or the country as a whole. Research gives reason to believe that the economic category “quality of life of the population” can be defined as “formed in mass consciousness, a generalized assessment of the totality of characteristics of the living conditions of the population."
These characteristics can be considered using seven integral properties of quality of life:
1. The quality of the population, integrating such properties as the ability to reproduce (fertility, mortality, morbidity, disability, life expectancy, etc.), the ability to form and maintain families (marriage rate, divorce rate), level of education and qualifications (proportion population enrolled in education in the relevant age groups, achieved level of education, etc.).
2. Well-being. The material aspect of well-being is characterized by indicators of income, current consumption and savings of the population (the amount of income in real terms, their distribution by areas of use and various socio-economic groups of the population, the structure of consumer expenditures of the population, the presence of durable consumer goods in households, the accumulation of property and valuables etc.), as well as such macroeconomic indicators as GDP per capita, actual household consumption, consumer price index, unemployment and poverty levels.
3. Living conditions of the population. The concept of “living conditions” includes the characteristics of housing conditions, provision of the population with health care, education, culture, use of free time, social and geographic mobility, etc.
4. Awareness of the population, characterizing accessibility to telecommunications and information infrastructures (mobile radio operators, information resources, Internet technologies, etc.).
5. Social security(or the quality of the social sphere), reflecting working conditions, social security and social protection, physical and property security.
6. Environmental quality (or the quality of an ecological niche), accumulating data on air pollution, water pollution, soil quality, level of biological diversity of the territory, etc.
7. Natural and climatic conditions, characterized by climatic conditions, frequency and specificity of force majeure situations (floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters).
Let's talk about indicators.
Indicators of quality of life are objective and subjective.
Objective indicators: natural and social. They reflect values such as per capita income, population migration, mortality rates, or such phenomena as crime, alcoholism, divorce, suicide, etc. Objective indicators are also relative, when the consumer’s financial situation is no longer determined by the absolute amount of his income, but by his relative position on the income scale, his position in society. A person may benefit from an increase in the absolute level of his income, but if the income of others increases in that proportion, he will ultimately regard his position as unchanged on the income-expenditure scale. The concepts of "necessary goods" and "luxury goods" over time become high degree interchangeable both when comparing countries with different levels of development, and when comparing different stages of development of the same country.
Subjective indicators reflect perception scores found in various surveys or public opinion polls.
There are a number of signs by which quality of life indicators can be grouped:
1. Depending on the hierarchical level. They are called macro indicators. They characterize the satisfaction of needs at the individual or family level. These include GDP, GNP; nominal or real income of the population; demographic indicators; length of the working week; free time; inflation rate and others.
2. Depending on the nature of the reflection of the essence of the category - standard of living. They are direct and indirect. Direct lines directly characterize the standard of living itself. For example, the level of food consumption.
Indirect indicators. Indirectly characterize the standard of living. These indicators include demographic indicators.
3. Depending on the nature of the calculation. These include level indicators, which show absolute values; structural, they are components of level indicators, as well as dynamic. They characterize changes in absolute indicators.
4. Depending on the group of needs, the satisfaction of which is characterized by one or another indicator. There are three main groups of needs: physical, spiritual (or also called intellectual) and social.
One of the most important indicators of quality of life is the HDI (Human Development Index). It is calculated annually and shows the standard of living, literacy and education of the population. It serves to compare the level and quality of life of different countries.
When calculating the HDI, 3 types of indicators are taken into account:
· Life expectancy -- estimates longevity.
· Literacy rate of the country's population (average number of years spent in education) and expected duration of education.
· Standard of living assessed through GNI per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in US dollars.
According to 2013 data, Kazakhstan’s HDI index is 0.8 and Kazakhstan ranks 69th in the list of countries with a very high development index.
World HDI map of UN members for 2013. [Appendices, map 1]
Also, to assess the satisfaction of various needs, various groups of indicators and their indicators are used [Appendices, table. 1]
There are also various systems quality of life indicators. They are all different, as they cover only certain groups of indicators.
One of the very first, effective and famous indicator systems is the system developed in the USA. This system is called the "Social Indicators" system. It consists of 7 blocks (health, public safety, education, labor, income, housing, leisure). These blocks include 167 indicators. For example, in the “labor” block there are such indicators as job satisfaction, quality of work life and others. This system effectively reflects the quality of life in various spheres of life.
Also one of the well-known systems is the system developed by the UN European Commission. In this system, 8 groups were identified: health, quality of the workplace, quality of the physical environment, sense of social confidence, etc.
Thus, we see that there are different groups and systems of quality of life indicators. In general, it is quite difficult to collect all the indicators and standardize them all into one system. After all, the very concept of quality of life is very broad. It is possible, for example, to create a system of economic indicators of the quality of life that will give us the opportunity to assess the quality of life from an economic point of view. Or you can create a system of social indicators.
The structure of the indicators themselves is also varied - from several generalized ones, which cover only essential aspects of life, to multi-level systems, including detailed listings of various factors and components. All of them in their own way reflect the goals of the classifications and approaches to understanding the problem of quality of life.
Quality of life standards
A standard is a document, developed by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that establishes rules for universal and repeated use, general principles or characteristics concerning various types activities and their results.
Standards invariably influence the management of human quality of life.
High standards of quality of life are perceived as the only possible and justified throughout the world.
Based on the above, the problem of reconciliation of interests involves studying the systems of interests of individual participants in joint activities, identifying the nature of their interaction and searching for ways to harmonize on the basis of mutually supporting (coinciding) interests.
Traditionally, there are three main groups of carriers of economic interests in the sphere economic activity: capital owners, managers and employees. The problem of coordinating the interests of these subjects at the enterprise level is the most typical object of study in economic science. At the same time, the interests of consumers and society fall out of the scope of study. In this regard, it seems important to study the interests of all subjects from an industry perspective. The most important industry The area of education that ensures an increase in human capital is the sphere of education.
Society is a multi-element system in which each subject has its own interests. The mutual realization of the interests of various subjects provides society with economic growth, while the suppression of the interests of individual subjects leads to instability of the entire system, increases the level of conflict and reduces the level of efficiency of its functioning. Coordination and integration of personal interests in conjunction with state or corporate interests seems to be an important and urgent task.
Bibliography
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2 Marx, K. Op. 2nd ed. / K. Marx, F. Engels. T. 18. P. 271.
3 Ibid. T. 2. - P. 535, 538.
4 Ibid. T. 4. - P. 330.
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A. M. Mikhailov // Economic sciences. - 2004. - No. 8. - P. 35.
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E. A. Chulichkov
LEVEL AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE POPULATION
The article analyzes the concepts of “population welfare”, “lifestyle”, “standard of living”, “cost of living”, “quality of life”, as a result
which differentiates such concepts as “standard of living” and “quality of life”.
Key words: welfare of the population, lifestyle, standard of living, cost of living, quality of life.
Scientists in many countries have been searching for indicators that would most fully reflect the real socio-economic state of society for quite a long time.
Only quantitative assessments of the level and living conditions to characterize the economic and social development of a country are not enough. It is very important to know on what indicators the quality and standard of living depends. Tracing the evolution of definitions of the level and quality of life, it should be noted that the concepts of “standard of living”, “quality of life”, “way of life” and others are used to characterize the well-being of the population. “People’s well-being was understood as a complex socio-economic phenomenon that integrates characteristics of the level, image and quality of life of the population, each of which represents only a certain cross-section of a single, but multifaceted and voluminous social organism1. “The well-being of the population is a characteristic of socio-economic living conditions and meeting the needs of the population”2.
In the 70-80s of the 20th century, the concept of “lifestyle” was widely used. As V.N. Bobkov, A.P. Pochinok and the team of authors note: “a lifestyle is a set of typical types of life activity of an individual, a social group, society as a whole at a certain stage of its development in unity with living conditions”3.
Despite all the seemingly obviousness of the generally accepted concept of “standard of living,” which is one of the fairly established ones and which corresponds to a relatively narrow and specific range of quantitative indicators, there are significant differences in the interpretation of this concept. Many authors include in the concept of “standard of living” what should be classified as close, interconnected, but special concepts of “quality of life” and “lifestyle”, which accumulate the influence of natural, climatic, environmental and social factors on the population.
N. A. Gorelov considers the category “standard of living” in the narrow and broad senses:
In a narrow sense - through characterizing the level of consumption of the population and the degree of satisfaction of needs (measuring income, expenses and consumption of goods and services by the population);
In a broad sense - through the characteristics of the level of human development (the state of health and the ability of the population to meet needs) and the living conditions of the population (the state of the living environment and the safety of the population)4.
Thus, in his opinion, in the narrow sense of the word, the standard of living is expressed in the amount of goods and services consumed by a person, or, in other words, as the ratio of the level of income of the population to the cost of living. At the same time, in a broad sense, he actually leans towards the quality of life characteristic.
Definitions of living standards available in the scientific literature are based on various concepts: production, consumption, income, cost of living, consumer regulations and standards, or have a complex, multidimensional nature. In this case, we agree with those authors who limit the content of the concept of “standard of living” to the sphere of consumption. The consumption of the population itself is determined by resources (income and property). Therefore the standard of living
most often considered in economic system resources - consumption. Limiting the category “standard of living” to the sphere of consumption is an important constructive approach from the point of view of practical tasks of assessment, comparison and forecasting.
According to this point of view, “the standard of living is a set of conditions for human functioning in the sphere of consumption, manifested in the scale of development of people’s needs and the nature of their satisfaction. The system-forming basis is the various human needs and needs that arise and are realized in the sphere of consumption”5.
The priority of consumption characteristics when studying living standards is also recognized by other scientists. According to I. I. Eliseeva, “the standard of living is understood as the provision of the population with necessary material goods and services, the achieved level of their consumption and the degree of satisfaction of reasonable (rational) needs”6.
Some researchers develop the concept of “cost of living” and practically equate it with the concept of “standard of living.” Thus, the authors of the work “Cost of Living and Its Measurement” believe that in the “classical” sense, the term “cost of living” is used to denote the cost of a set of consumer goods corresponding to a certain level of satisfaction of needs. According to this interpretation, changes in the cost of living are associated not only with the dynamics of consumer prices, but also with structural changes in people’s consumption as a result of an increase in their needs, with the state of market conditions (meaning the offered range of goods and services, their availability to consumers, the state of balance between demand and proposals) and other factors. With this understanding, the term “cost of living” most closely corresponds to the content of the concepts of standard of living or well-being of the population, the level and structure of which, as much as possible, take into account, along with the direct change in prices, the cumulative influence of a number of significant factors: the dynamics of various types of income, savings, improvement of the system of free services, changes in the taxation of personal income, progress in the structure of consumption of the population, etc.”7.
When it became obvious that the standard of living category did not comprehensively reflect the well-being of the population, the term “quality of life” appeared. Existing interpretations and definitions of the very concept of “quality of life” are very ambiguous and, despite big interest to this issue among foreign researchers remains controversial. The main thing that we need to focus on and what, in fact, the concept of quality of life is connected with is not only to have things, but also to gain access to the benefits of culture, the development of the human personality, the opportunity to receive an education, move up the social ladder, and participate in solving social problems. issues, security in old age, job satisfaction, etc.
The modern economic dictionary gives the following definition of the concept of “quality of life”: Quality of life is a generalizing socio-economic category that includes not only the level of consumption of material goods and services (standard of living), but also the satisfaction of spiritual needs, health, life expectancy, environmental conditions human environment, moral and psychological climate, spiritual comfort8.
The concept of quality of life has a rather complex structure. A number of authors note that, from their point of view, it includes the quality of population health,
quality of education, quality of the natural environment, spirituality9. Hence, in our opinion, quality of life is the totality of the conditions of human existence that ensure the receipt of the necessary benefits of life, material wealth and spiritual values.
In connection with the formation of market relations and the emergence of a person as a subject of economic activity, at present, not only the concept of “needs”, but also the concept of “interests” are actively used by economic science, the subject area of which is the rational actions of an economic entity to achieve its goals.
Dialectical unity and contradiction of human needs and interests is at the basis of all social development. It is the process of elevating needs and expanding a person’s freedom to choose how to satisfy them that is the main driving force and development goal modern society. Therefore, in the most general form, we consider the quality of life as “the degree of development and completeness of satisfaction of the entire complex of needs and interests of people, manifested in various forms of activity, and in the very sense of life”10.
There are other definitions of quality of life that go beyond issues of needs and interests. Thus, specialists in various fields of knowledge, studying this problem under the auspices of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE), consider the content of the concept of “quality of life” as a set of life values that characterize types of activities, the structure of needs and the conditions of existence of a person (population groups, society ), people's satisfaction with life, social relationships and environment" More specifically, in their methodology, quality of life is considered as a complex of characteristics of the life activity of an individual (a group of people or the population as a whole), which determine its optimal course at a specific time, in certain conditions and place and ensure the adequacy of its (life) parameters to the main types of activity and human needs ( biological, material, spiritual, etc.)11.
Notes
1 Sannikova, E. S. Assessing the quality of life of the population based on the development of the industrial complex of the region: dis. . Ph.D. econ. Sciences / E. S. Sannikova. - Krasnoyarsk, 1997. - P. 89.
2 Abalkin, L. I. Notes on Russian entrepreneurship / L. I. Abalkin. - M.: Progress Academy, 1994. - P. 76.
Social policy, level and quality of life: dictionary. - M.: Publishing house VCUZH, 2001. - P. 57.
4 Income policy and quality of life of the population / N. A. Gorelov. - St. Petersburg. : Leader, 2003. - P. 75.
5 Rimashevskaya, N. M., Opikov, L. A. People's welfare. Trends and prospects. - M.: Nauka, 1991. - P. 9.
6 Income and wage policy: textbook / ed. P. V. Savchenko and Yu. P. Kokina. - M.: Yurist, 2000. - P. 67.
7 The cost of living and its measurement / ed. V. M. Rutgaiser, S. P. Shpilko. - M.: Finance and Statistics, 1991. - P. 6.
8 Raizberg, B. A. Modern economic dictionary. 5th ed., revised. and additional /
B. A. Raizberg, L. Sh. Lozovsky, E. B. Starodubtseva. - M.: INFRA-M, 2007. - P. 209.
9 Boytsov, B.V. Anthology of Russian quality / B.V. Boytsov, Yu.V. Kryanev // Editorial board of the magazine Standard and Quality. - 2003. - P. 207.
10 Zherebin, V. M. Standard of living of the population - as it is understood today /
V. M. Zherebin, N. A. Ermakova // Questions of statistics. - 2000. - No. 8. - P. 3-11.
11 Bazhenov S. A. Quality of life of the population: theory and practice / S. A. Bazhenov, N. S. Malikov // Living standards of the population of Russian regions. - 2002. - No. 10. - P. 19.