HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life

S4 Liberal Studies
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Theme 1 Quality of Life
Key
question
Which directions might be chosen in maintaining and improving Hong Kong residents
quality of life?



Learning
Outcomes
Students can show their abilities to
1. demonstrate their understanding of the purpose of the measurement of Quality of
Life, to elaborate the meaning and different aspects of quality of life and its
subjective judgment and objective criteria of measurement in terms of economic,
social, cultural, political and environmental aspects. (Activity 1, 2) (Part A)
2. explain factors affecting QoL & apply concepts of QoL (Activity 3) (Part B)
3. demonstrate their understanding of the various measures HK Government can take to
promote quality of life, and understanding of the limitations of these measures (Part D
Activity 4)
4. evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of government measures (Part E Activity 6)
5. identify obstacles/hurdles with respect to maintaining and improving quality of life in
Hong Kong (Part F);
6. to apply the relevant concepts and knowledge to analyse Poverty and Inequality in
Hong Kong, including but not limited to housing problems, and the challenges to the
under-privileged.








A. Meaning and Purposes Quality of Life (QoL) ()
a. What is the QoL? It is about individuals *well-being, happiness and *level of satisfaction in
relation to the material and non-material aspects of their lives, including *political, economic,
social, cultural, environmental aspects ().

b. To individuals, quality of life involves a subjective judgment of how happy or how satisfied
they are with their life.

c. To a government, quality of life is a tool to help it identify the areas of concerns if the well-
being of its people is to be taken care of. It helps a government to make policy decision and to
evaluate the performance of a government and the effectiveness of its policies. Objective
measurement of quality of life is therefore needed to assist policy making.

d. To obtain objective measurement of quality of life, the government considers the well-being of
its citizens. Well-being is a state of a person which he/she can be free to act and make
choices under the legal framework for his/her preferences in the material and non-material
aspects of life.
Activity 1: Different meaning of Quality of Life. (Outcome 1)

(a) Watch video Economic Freedom in class
Episode 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1U1Jzdghjk
(b) Watch video of Sakatoon city in Canada at home to see how a city promote itself through QoL.(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwf0MLpJO6Y)
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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Activity 2: What is well-being?
Discuss with your group members what well-being means to you. Some guiding questions are
provided to guiding your discussion.

How can an individual be free to act? What conditions do people need to have in order to be free to
act? (Think about the material and non-material aspects, and the society he/she is in)




B. Objective Measurement of Quality of Life in Hong Kong
a. The Hong Kong SAR Government has not released any official definition of Quality of Life or
its measurement. However, the Chinese University of Hong Kong has suggested the Quality of Life
Index to measure quality of life in five different areas/domains, namely social, political, economic,
cultural, and environmental aspects.

b. Quality of life is different from standard of living (), which is the level of satisfaction
of basic materialistic needs. Quality of life is multi-dimensional. It is not only affected by material life,
but also non-material life. Standard of living is generally measured by the real income per person (per
capita income after deducting the effect of inflation). However, there are many deficiencies in this
measurement, because it measures only the materialistic aspects and not the non-materialistic aspects
such as freedom of choice, justice, fairness, equal opportunities, and the cultural, political, social and
environmental betterments of its people.

Activity 3: Factors affecting QoL (Outcome 2)
Watch the video Is Hong Kong Liveable? and write down the political, social, cultural and
environmental factors affecting of Hong Kong peoples quality of life. Some words are provided to help
you in the next box. Apart from the concepts mentioned in the video, you can also include any other
concepts you think is important.
Watch another video: Episode Two: Economic Freedom & Quality of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fWQnguR1E


pollution, living space, cultural heritage, green space, social problems, conflicts, freedom of press,
freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, social harmony, social stability, level of stress, leisure
infrastructure, transport network, connectivity, convenience, cultural diversity, cultural homogeneity,
human rights, social order (crime rate), political suppression, social / cultural integration




HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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C. Key concepts of factors affecting quality of life

a. Economic factors: factors affecting peoples standard of living

Factors Measurement Interpretation
i. Job opportunities Unemployment rate
(3.3% as of Oct 2013 in
Hong Kong)
The higher the unemployment rate, the more the
unemployed people, and the less satisfied people
are with their life.
ii. Income Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) per
capita) (USD 36,796 in
2012)
Higher GDP per capita indicates higher living
standard.
iii. Cost of living

Inflation rate increase
in price levels of goods
(4.6% as of Sep 2013);
deflation decrease in
price levels
Higher inflation rate means consumers can
consume less with the same amount of money.
High inflation rate means lower living standard.
iv. Disparity between
the rich and the poor
/ income inequality

Gini Coefficient
(0.533 as of 2010)
0 indicates absolutely even income distribution. 1
indicates extreme disparity between the rich and
the poor. The greater the numerical value, the
larger the disparity, the more uneven the income
distribution.


Environmental factor:
Economic factor: Social factor:
Political factor:
Cultural factor:

Quality of life (Well-being, happiness,
pleasure, life satisfaction)
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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b. Social factors
i. Social welfare social services provided by the government for the benefits of citizens (e.g.
education and healthcare)
Social welfare protects individuals against life risks such as unemployment. Provision of social
welfare in general improves peoples quality of life.

ii. Social mobility peoples movement from one socio-economic status to another
Upward social mobility
Downward social mobility
A society with high social mobility gives people hope and motivation to work hard to improve
their life.

iii. Social harmony (disharmony), social stability (instability), social cohesion (division)
Social harmony (disharmony) the extent to which
people live together peacefully / in conflict
! Recap: what is conflict?
! Different types of conflicts: interest conflict
(*personal interest vs public interest), value
conflict, cultural conflicts
Social stability (instability) the extent to which a
society is in order and stable / unstable
Social cohesion (division) the extent to which
members of a society has strong bonding / sense of
belong or whether they are divided

c. Cultural factors Recap: what is culture?

i. Cultural diversity - different cultures being able to coexist, integrate and develop in a place
ii. Cultural homogeneity only one type of culture exist in a place
iii. Cultural heritage - the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible assets of a group or society
that are inherited from past generations. It includes:
Tangible culture: architecture, artifacts, books, paintings and sculptures
Intangible culture: folktales, traditions, language, knowledge

d. Environmental factors
i. Natural heritage significant landscapes
ii. Biodiversity degree of variation in life;
iii. Clean environment: clean air, low pollution

e. Political factors details to be covered in the theme Rule of Law
i. Performance of the government (whether its governance is effective and efficient)
ii. rule of law () a society governed by law
iii. democracy / universal suffrage one man one vote ()
iv. clean and transparent government with proper accountability ,
v. freedom of choices, justice, fairness, equal opportunities, and other core values of Hong Kong;


middle
class
working class
Upper class
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vi. government for the people, of the people, and by the people.

Activity 4: Applying concepts to understand quality of life

Read the data file and discuss the following question with your group members. Your group can use the
following steps to help you discuss.






Step What to do?
1 Write down the concepts. Do this when you are reading the sources thoroughly.

2 Select relevant aspects of quality of life. You should select more than ONE aspect to show
your multiple perspectives!
Students can discuss the impacts of poverty on quality of life of poor people in Hong Kong and
Hong Kong people in general.
3 Explain
HOW (the
process)
poverty
increase /
decrease
quality of
life
Aspect 1

Economic
Poverty lowers the standard of living of poor people in Hong Kong.
Source A: Poor children are not fed properly. Housing conditions of
poor households are very bad, with damp ceilings and floors, shortage
of space and inability to maintain adequate temperature throughout the
year. Without adequate income, poor people cannot meet their basic
material needs and therefore their quality of life is lowered.
Aspect 2

Social

1. Source B: although Hong Kongs health care system allows poor
people to have access to medical services, poor people in Hong Kong
are still more likely to suffer from physical and non-physical health
problems. It may be because low income disallows poor people to eat
healthy but relatively more expensive food. Moreover, poverty also
leads to more conflicts among family members as family members
have to compete for more resources. Poor peoples satisfaction of life
will be lowered if they do not have good health.

2. Source B and Source C: to Hong Kong people in general, poverty
may lower their quality of life because it leads to social instability.
With the presence of wealthy people, poverty reflects the problems of
income disparity in Hong Kong. The problem triggers community and
political groups to protest and express their discontent and demand the
government to help the poor. Peoples quality of life would be lowered
if they live in a socially discontented, divided and unstable society.

Aspect 3

Political
Source C: Poverty also lowers Hong Kong peoples quality of life in
the political aspect because it lowers peoples satisfaction with the
performance of the government. In a well-developed city, poverty
reflects the incapability of the government to solve social problems.
As such, people may protest against the government, undermining the
How does poverty affect quality of life of Hong Kong people? (Outcome 1, 2, & 6)

Suggest and elaborate 1 factor each from the five domains/areas which may affect quality of life.

HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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effectiveness of its governance.
Aspect 4

Cultural


Poverty lowers poor peoples quality of life because it disenables poor
people to enjoy culture such as traditional festivals and fine arts.
Source A: poor children (12% of all children) lack extra-curricular
activities such as sports and music. Also, 20% of all adults cannot
celebrate Chinese New Year because they cannot afford these things.
As poverty block poor peoples way to cultural enjoyment, it lowers
poor peoples quality of life because their non-material needs are not
meet. (Source A)
Aspect 5








D. Government measures to promote quality of life (Outcome 3)

a. Measure a way to achieve something, a method for dealing with a situation
b. Three types of measures:
i. Preventive measures: methods taken to prevent a situation or something before it happens
(e.g. waste charging to reduce the production of waste; advertisement to promote anti-drug
messages)
ii. Treatment / remedies: methods taken to deal with something after it happens (e.g.
Construction of landfills to treat wastes produced; establishment of rehabilitation centres for
drug addicts)
iii. Long term measures / short term measures

c. **Strategies of the government:
i. Legislation setting laws to make it compulsory for individuals or organization to do
something or not to do something
ii. Provision of resources as incentives (land, financial subsidies, tax exemption) or
disincentives (financial charges and taxes) to encourage / discourage individuals or
organization
iii. Education / Advertisement and Publicity to raise individuals or organizations awareness
iv. Infrastructure / technology improve the infrastructure / technology to make measures
feasible or make it more convenient for individuals or organizations to do something
v. Using market forces public private partnership, privatisation (selling pubic assets to private
companies / allowing private companies to manage public assets), contracting out

Activity 5: Designing measures to promote quality of life in Hong Kong (Outcome 3)

Read the data file to understand the factors leading to poverty. Discuss with your group members to
suggest measures to eradicate poverty as a means to promote quality of life of Hong Kong people.
Notes: Suggested answers are just suggestions. Teachers are not required to go through all the
suggested measures with students. Rather, teachers should make sure that students can suggest
feasible measures based on the following 4 / 5 strategies.
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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Legislation Economic incentives Education /
Advertisement and
Publicity
Infrastructure /
technology
1. Setting minimum
wage law (which has
been set ) to prevent
companies from
setting a too-low
wage for workers ->
reduce working poor

2. Setting laws on
maximum working
hours so that workers
get paid for their
overtime work

3. Legislate collective
bargaining power of
labour unions so that
labour unions are
more powerful to
negotiate with
employers about
payment and
employee benefits.
1. Provision of transport
subsidies for low-
income people to
encourage them to
work.

2. Increasing provision
of social welfare to
the poor to ensure
that the basic
material needs of the
poor are met (Source
1b shows that
poverty rate is
substantially reduced
after taking into
account social
welfare.

1. Provision of
vocational training to
low-skilled workers
so that they can
possess more skills to
find better paid jobs
in the labour market.


1. Expansion of
transport network to
areas far away from
the central business
districts to provide
affordable
transportation for
the poor to travel
and work.

2. Establishment of job
centres in areas
where there are a lot
of poor people
living in. These job
centres can organize
job fairs and provide
other employment
services for the poor
to get employed /
change to better paid
jobs etc.

Optional: Measures using market forces
Provision venture capital to encourage the establishment of social enterprises which provide
jobs for the vulnerable groups (e.g. the elderly)

E. Effectiveness, efficiency and feasibility of government measures (Dont mix them up!)
(Outcome 4)
a) Effectiveness - the extent to which measures bring about desired outcomes
For a measure to be effective, the measure must address the factors leading to a problem /
situation and can bring in the desired outcome or achieve the policy objectives (i.e. ultimate
purpose of the policy or meaures
b) Efficiency the extent to which fewer resources are used to bring about the same outcomes
Resources: land, money, human resources, technology





Efficiency Effectiveness
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
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c) Feasibility the extent to which a measure is practicable and implementable

d) An effective measure has to be feasible. However, a feasible measure is not necessarily effective.













e. Stakeholder: an individual, a group, or an organization who will be affected by the actions of other
individuals, groups or organizations
Stakeholders of HKUGAC: students, teachers, parents, alumni etc.
Stakeholders of a private company: employees, shareholders, customers etc.
Stakeholders may have conflicts with each other (Recap: what are conflicts? What are the
different types of conflicts? Value conflict, conflict in interests (public interests, private interests)

Activity 6: Evaluating the effectiveness and feasibility of your groups measure (Outcome 4)

Choose at least ONE measure your group has suggested in Activity 3 and evaluate the effectiveness of
your measure in reducing poverty to promote quality of life in Hong Kong. You can take the following
steps to help you do the evaluation. Important! Avoid being one-sided in your evaluation! You
MUST discuss BOTH the usefulness and limitation of your measure.

Notes to teachers: No definite suggested answers should be given in this section because the
answers should depend on the type of measure students choose to evaluate. You can refer the
debriefing section for general factors, advantages and disadvantages affecting the effectiveness of
each measure. In this section, some factors leading to poverty are suggested to help you guide
students to complete the task. All of them are based on Source 3 in the data file.

4. Unemployment Source 3B: Among all economic groups, unemployed people are the most
likely to be poor (84.3% /64.5% poverty rate). Source 3C: Higher unemployment rate (17.6%)
among the poor than the non-poor (2.7%). Unemployment means no income -> poverty.

5. Low skill level and low education level Source 3C: % of lower-skilled people and people with
educational attainment at lower secondary and below are much higher among the poor than
Feasibility
Resources
(money, land,
human
resources)
Technology
Resistance /
opposition from
stakeholders
Execution
(administrative
and
management
capability)
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
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the non-poor. Low skill level and low educational level makes people take up low-paid jobs
which do not require high level of skills -> working poor

6. Economic restructuring from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge-based economy ->
reduction of jobs with low skill and low education requirement in the job market / decreasing
wages for jobs with low skill and low education requirement -> unemployment / working poor -
> poverty

7. Concentration of low income people in districts far away from the central business district
where better-paid jobs are located in. Low income people are concentrated in districts such as
Yuen Long in the NT because the rents there are lower and public housing is built in these
districts. Living in these areas trap the low income people in poverty (high transportation fees -
> disincentive to travel from the NT to Hong Kong Island or KW to work) etc.

8. Aging population (increasing proportion of elderly in the population). [Students should have a
basic idea about aging population when they study the data file of IDENTITY.] Source B: The
elderly are more likely to be poor (72.1% poverty rate among the elderly). The elderly is likely
to be poor because of their losing ability to work and earn money and lack of jobs available for
the elderly in the job market. Without a comprehensive pension system, the elderly is more
likely to be poor when they lose their jobs.

Step What to do? Do you agree that __________________ is effective?
1 ! Identify the problem
you want to solve / the
outcomes you want to
achieve
! Describe how to
implement.

2 ! Identify the factors
leading to the problem
or are critical to the
achievement of
outcomes.
! Does your suggested
measure address these
factors and help stop
the problem? Explain.

X (the factors) "
Y (the Problems) ;
(Your suggested
measures have to be
able to reduce the effect
of X on Y or to
eliminate X.)
Factors that can be addressed
















Factors that cannot be addressed.
(the limitation of your suggested
measures)
3 ! Is your measure
feasible? Explain.
Feasible

not feasible
HKUGA College (2012-2013) Quality of Life
S4 Liberal Studies
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! Would there be
opposition / resistance
from stakeholders?








4 ! Overall evaluation: is
your measure
effective?





Debriefing of Activity 6

(I) Effectiveness, Pros and Cons of different measures

**Legislation Provision of resources
(money and land)
Education /
Advertisement and
publicity
Improvement of
infrastructure and
technology
General
factors
- Coverage
- Enforcement of
law
- Severity of
punishment
- Exemption
- deterrent effect
The amount of resources
(e.g. the amount of cash
given). It affects how
strong the incentives /
disincentives are.

Coverage Availability
accessibility
Level of technology
Advanta
ges
- Quick to take
effect, right
after the law is
enforced
- quick to take effect,
right after the financial
- Effect may not be long
lasting. People may
not behave as desired
if there are no more
financial incentives /
disincentives
- Raise peoples
awareness
- Less opposition
as the strategy very
often does not
harm the interests
of stakeholders
- Remove
technological
constraints.

Disadva
ntages/li
mitation
s
- Government
intervention in
the free market
- Opposition from
various
stakeholders
(e.g. business
sector)
- Use of a lot of
resources e.g. public
money
- Opposition from
various stakeholders,
depending on who
bears the cost
- Long- term
strategy: takes a
long time to show
effect
- Awareness may
not be motivating
enough for people
to behave as
desired.
Research and
development of
technology takes a
long time


(II) Values and Priorities of Various different stakeholders / interest groups (Outcome 5)
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Peoples opinions about quality of life vary among different social groups. Examples of differences in
peoples opinions include whether people think *economic development is the most important (i.e. more
important than environmental, social, cultural and political aspects of quality of life). Different social
groups which have different values() and interests (short-term and long-term costs and
benefits ) have different concerns and priorities.




F. Obstacles/hurdles with respect to Maintaining and Improving Quality of Life

i. Technological constraints (e.g. inadequacies of medical technology and environmental technology)

Interest groups / stakeholders Values / demands / priorities
Business sector (large corporations,
small and medium enterprises, local
shops)
Economic development and favourable business environment
are the most important. E.g. low costs (rent, labour), good
infrastructure. Cares about profit and creation of economic
value most. Cares about environmental protection and cultural
preservation if there are business opportunities.

Different social
classes
The middle class
(more educated)
Economic aspect is as important as environmental, social,
cultural and political aspects. They do not get as much social
welfare as the low-income groups, so they increasingly demand
more social protection.

Low-income
groups (less
educated)
Econ: employment opportunities, income, livelihood
Social: social welfare, social protection, income equality
Cares less about environmental, cultural and political aspects

# Non-
government
organizations
(NGOs)
# Activists
# Interest
groups
# Pressure
groups
Environmentalists Environmental protection and sustainable development

Cultural
conservationists
Preservation of cultural heritage and collective memory
NGOs helping
vulnerable social
groups (e.g. ethnic
minorities / low
income groups)
Values both economic and social aspects:
Econ: livelihood of vulnerable groups
Social: a) provision of social welfare b) equal opportunities /
social equality c) social inclusion
Human rights /
political groups
Values democratic development, universal suffrage, human
rights
The Government Social stability and social order are the most important.
Economic prosperity () is important because a good
economy is thought to maintain social stability and order.
Activities 7: Suggest possible values, interests of the following groups of stakeholders that will affect
their stance toward improving quality of life a Hong Kong citizens in general.
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ii. Limited resources, difficulties in mobilizing resources (e.g. time, money, land)

iii. Difficulties in building consensus on deciding common goals and how resources should be allocated,
difficulties in resolving conflict in interests

iv. Differences in peoples understanding of social justice / social equity (). E.g. some people think
it is fair if everyone is allocated the same amount of resources or opportunities. Other people think it is
fair if people who work harder are given more resources or opportunities.

v. Regional and international factors some factors which affect quality of life in Hong Kong are not
controlled by the Hong Kong government or citizens. Seeking regional or international cooperation
is important to improve quality of life in Hong Kong. E.g. air pollution problems polluting factories
in the Pearl River Delta is the major contributing factor to air pollution in Hong Kong.