Quality of Life in Modern Conditions of Socio-Economic Development

Background and aim of study:

The quality of life at this time is acquiring a new function – the function of the most important factor of production. Not only professional training of employees increases their labor productivity, but also the overall spiritual, intellectual, and cultural development of working people, which, of course, is associated with improving their quality of life, embodies productive functions. Over time, a harmony of communication is formed between the growth of quality of life and the growth of productivity. Increasing the role of quality of life as a factor of production is also associated with the socialization of economic, social, political and other relations of people. The quality of life implies that members of society turn from objects of industrial and political relations into subjects of these relations. The most important direction of studying the quality of social life is the disclosure of its system of indexes (or indicators), forms of manifestation that can be used to determine the qualitative and quantitative state of life of people, social groups, classes and society as a whole. The central question is to understand life itself, to determine its quality. If we judge the state of affairs based on achievements in this field, then for half a century of scientific research – success is less than the problems that have arisen. Not only “quality of life”, but also other categories close to it, such as: well-being, standard of living, lifestyle, etc. they are not sufficiently developed in indicators, and a number of inherent shortcomings are almost equally general shortcomings. The purpose of the study is to investigate the essence of the category of quality of life as a criteria for social effectiveness.

Research methods:

In the course of the work, general scientific methods and techniques were applied: dialectical approach; the principle of logical and System Analysis and synthesis; ideas of organizational and system approaches to the analysis of management of social and socio-economic systems; methods of comparative analysis.

Results:

The content of the main definition of the category “quality of life” was clarified, based on modern theoretical and methodological approaches. A classification of “quality of life” indicators based on long-term strategic goals for human development and human society is proposed.

Conclusion:

It is incorrect to say that “social progress is impossible if three key goals of a person are not realized: to live a long and healthy life; to acquire, expand and improve the professional level; to gain access to livelihoods that ensure the achieved standard of living”. For the vast majority of the population of all countries of the world, these goals have not been realized for many millennia, and social progress has been taking place. The latter, as historical experience has shown, is carried out not in a straight line, not evenly, not always, but intermittently, in combination with regression. However, at the present stage in developed countries, prerequisites have been created for solving long-term strategic goals of Man and human society. These goals that determine the quality of life, indicators of its development are: 1) the well-being of all members of society without exception; 2) active creative activity in all spheres of life, ensuring the dominance of creative work in society; 3) the comprehensive development of human abilities and Human Society; 4) ensuring the compliance of production relations with the nature and level of development of the productive forces of society; 5) the priority of spiritual wealth and its humanization; 6) ensuring the complete safety of life on Earth: overcoming the environmental crisis, destroying nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction, banning changes in the human genetic code. These strategic goals and objectives to improve the quality of life can be solved by significantly expanding and deepening the functions of the state to regulate the economy, innovative social reproduction, and subordinate the economy to human development.

DOI and UDC:

UDC: 330.101:316.42/43 DOI: 10.26697/ijes.2020.4.24

Information about the authors:

Litvinenko Andrey Volodymyrovych – Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Economic Policy, Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, Kharkiv, Ukraine. Research interests: the development of the social state, social partnership; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5973- 5173