About this Presentation
Governments need to evaluate whether public decisions improve quality of life, yet people do not agree on what "quality of life" means. Guido Bacharach frames this as a measurement conflict: a useful public measure needs a universal basis, while the values people use to judge outcomes are subjective. Conventional quality-of-life indexes tend to sacrifice one side of that conflict for the other. The presentation proposes a different starting point: value becomes observable when people choose. Real choices expose trade-offs such as time versus money, safety versus convenience, or income versus stress. Time is offered as a possible common reference because it is finite, universally understood, and usable across different kinds of choices even though an hour is not equally valuable to every person in every situation. A simple example asks how much commuting time someone would trade for cleaner air. The point is not to establish an absolute value of clean air or quality of life, but to make the relative value of a specific change observable without requiring everyone to agree on the same values. The implication for government is practical: quality of life may be impossible to measure absolutely, but it may be possible to measure whether a proposed change moves people toward it without jeopardizing conditions needed for the future.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Why governments face a fundamental measurement problem when their goal involves quality of life but citizens define value differently.
How the conflict between universal measurement and subjective values limits conventional quality-of-life indexes.
Why observable choices and trade-offs can reveal relative value, with time serving as a possible common reference across different decisions.
How government may evaluate whether a specific change moves people toward improved quality of life without claiming to measure quality of life absolutely.
Instructor(s)
Guido Bacharach
Guido Bacharach, Former Head of Strategy and Digitization Unit at the Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung in Dortmund. After his university studies he has held predominantly management positions, especially in the sales area and in public services. The focus of his work is on strategic digitization, process improvement, and project management. He is co-founder of the TOCICO SIG “TOC in Government.