050001000015000200002500030000350001950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
YearGDP/capita (USD PPP)Figure 1.1: Illustration of the development of the GDP (USD/capita USD PPP) in Switzerland
(OECD (2004)).
It is seen that the growth of wealth has been tremendous and still seems to be stable. The GDP
is an important indicator of the performance of a society, but shall be seen in the context of
several other indicators, such as the life expectancy, the literacy rate and many others before a
full picture can be achieved. In order to understand the context of engineering decision–
making, also the development of the life expectancy is shown in Figure 1.2.
(^)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Year
Expected life at birth
Figure 1.2: Illustration of the development of the life expectancy for Switzerland (Human Mortality
Database (2004)).
From Figure 1.2 it is seen that also the expected life at birth has increased significantly during
the last century. In fact there appears to be a strong interrelation between the economical
capability of a society and the expected life at birth; the continued economic development
depends on the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next as well as the
acquisition of new knowledge in every generation, the ability and willingness of one
generation to acquire knowledge depends on the expected life at birth. The expected life at
birth is generally understood as an indicator of the level of education, the efficiency of the
health system and together with the GDP it is strongly related to the quality of life. It is
therefore apparent that the quality of life in fact has improved significantly over time.
Generally, it is a concern how society can maintain and even improve the quality of life. On
the one side, all activities in society should thus aim at improving the life expectancy and on
the other on improving the GDP resulting in the conclusion that investments in life saving