quality of life & the common good

In my most recent post I argued that our national pledge in the United States, of “liberty and justice for all”, while nice sounding is in fact misleading since in actual practice these two ideals are mutually limiting. A society like the United States which emphasizes personal liberty must (and in actual fact does) fail in the area of justice, and similarly a society that places primary emphasis on social justice thereby makes a choice to place limits on personal liberty. I concluded the post by suggesting that a better – and in fact more measurable - set of values to focus on in creating the ideal society are “quality of life” and “the common good.” In the present post I explore this idea.

Quality of life (QOL) is about meeting a defined standard of safety, comfort, and satisfaction in our lives – as individuals, as families, as communities. The Quality of Life Research Unit at the University of Toronto identifies three areas that make up QOL: Being, Belonging, and Becoming.¹ “Being” is defined as having to do with “who one is;” “Belonging” as having to do with “connections with one's environments;” and “Becoming” as related to “achieving personal goals, hopes and aspirations.” Each of these areas is fruther broken down, as shown in the table below.² According to the Toronto Center's model, given an environment meeting specific criteria, QOL can be defined individually by each person, family, community, etc. It is not a one size fits all model.³

So, the challenge in what I am proposing is to re-think our societies in such a way that, instead of individual freedom, emphasis is placed on empowering all to achieve the quality of life desired. This will require allowing for some agreed on level of personal freedom but it does not require absolute freedom. The goal is for persons to experience a personal sense of quality in their lives.

QOL focuses on more the personal and individual side of the equation. Balancing this then we must again recognize the fact that as human beings we are part of a series of communities – starting with family and broadening to community locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. This takes us then to the second value that I am proposing: The Common Good (TCG). TCG is essentially the implementation of QOL collectively and universally. It is the striving (together) for all persons to enjoy QOL. The word “common” in this phrase refers to the fact that this “good” must apply to all persons. I suggest that the “good” is defined by QOL. Moving from our personal QOL we are called to be in dialogue with our neighbors to ensure that QOL is shared by ALL. This certainly means in our own family and in our immediate community, but from there it must extend finally to encompass every human person on the planet.⁴ What would life be like if this were to become a reality?!?  I believe that if we pursue true QOL, it will mean that we are also caring for the earth itself - our survival and well-being, its survival and well-being, and the survival and well-being of all living beings on this planet!

BEING	Physical Being	physical health personal hygiene nutrition exercise grooming and clothing general physical appearance
	Psychological Being	psychological health and adjustment cognitions feelings self-esteem, self-concept and self-control
	Spiritual Being	personal values personal standards of conduct spiritual beliefs
BELONGING	Physical Belonging	home workplace/school neighbourhood community
	Social Belonging	intimate others family friends co-workers neighbourhood and community
	Community Belonging	adequate income health and social services employment educational programs recreational programs community events and activities
BECOMING	Practical Becoming	domestic activities paid work school or volunteer activities seeing to health or social needs.
	Leisure Becoming	activities that promote relaxation and stress reduction
	Growth Becoming	activities that promote the maintenance or improvement of knowledge and skills adapting to change

1 See the Quality of Life Research Unit's website for more detail.

2 Reproduced from the Toronto Quality of Life Research units website. See ibid.

3 In fact there are a number of studies that offer approaches to quantifying and ranking the quality of life in various parts of the world. See, for example, the OECD Better Life Index site, and the Quality of Life Indicators on the EUROSTAT site. NUMBEO is another example, although their approach tends to be based more on material considerations.

4 If we achieve this balance, I believe that in fact we will have reached an appropriate balance between liberty and justice as well.