#10 - Standard of living is not the same as quality of life.
Many Westerners appreciate the ability to earn a good living and maintain quality of life issues such as excellent recreational opportunities like mountain biking.
Economic success is often measured in terms of growth, such as with employment and total personal income. While growth is a useful gauge for comparing different regions of the West, it should not be considered the only measure of economic well-being.
There are many ways to measure well-being. Some, like per capita income, labor income, population, average earnings per job, and total personal income, are measures of standard of living and are not necessarily measures of quality of life. Crime rate, air and water quality, recreational opportunities, social capital ( e.g., the amount of volunteerism in the community), leisure time, and myriad other measures cannot be as easily quantified in economic terms yet may be equally important to individuals and communities as high wages or growth.
The table below shows characteristics associated with rapidly growing populations (positive correlation) or declining populations (negative correlation) for counties in the West from 1990 to 2005.
Source: 2000 Decennial Census. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC. U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2004. Decennial Census on Population and Housing. Washington, DC. A housing affordability index for each county was developed as follows: we assumed a 20 percent down payment and that no more than 25 percent of a family's income goes to paying the mortgage. It is based on an interest rate of 8.03 percent in 2000. It is a statistic that is best used for comparative, rather than absolute, measures.
Fast-growing counties tend to have several advantages, shown in the first row in the table above: an educated workforce, high per capita income and average earnings per job, and a high percent of workers in white collar jobs. These are quantitative measures of standard of living.
The negative aspects of high growth counties can also be seen in the table in the second row: home values and rent are high, forcing many people to commute to their jobs from more affordable neighboring counties, and the middle class gives way to income stratification. These measures indicate the costs of high growth that can diminish quality of life.
The third row of the table shows county characteristics where population is declining. Counties that don’t have fast growth tend to have affordable housing and a high percent of jobs that do not require a college degree. They are also characterized by poverty.
This table shows a typical predicament for Westerners: high growth can degrade quality of life, yet low or no growth can degrade standard of living. For this reason, all efforts at stimulating economic growth should include a cost/benefit analysis to take into account the impact on quality of life. All efforts to protect quality of life should take into consideration their effects on standard of living.
Additional Resources
Cornelia Flora has written extensively on this topic. See, for example: www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/Winter%2098-99/From%20the%20Director.html.She has also discussed a related approach: the Triple Bottom Line. See www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/newsletter/Vol27No2-2004/bottomline.htm.