How important is quality of life as a site selection criteria? It all depends upon who plans to move along to the new location. If it's you, the decision maker, then it's probably very important.

However, for most new plant expansions, the senior management team is not moving to the new location, so the quality of life issue loses most of its urgency, and rightly so. That's because the bulk of your work force at the new facility already lives in that particular community.

Quality of life, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. It's a very subjective thing. Most of us really like where we live, and believe that our community has a fabulous quality of life.

But as a business person, the only aspect of quality of life you should care about is that your employees are happy with their lives and happy with their jobs. Sure it sounds trite, but it's true that happy workers are usually more productive workers and are also more likely to remain with your company. Lower turnover, in turn, cuts down on your recruitment and training expenses.

But that's it. The rest is all fluff.

Pictures of moms watching adoringly as their children laugh and play in a local park, of fathers and sons mowing their well-landscaped lawns on an early summer morning, of families and neighbors gathered together in joyful conversation on the steps of the local church following the Sunday morning service - all of these are market-tested images designed to conjure up feelings of a better, more peaceful life.

Just thinking about it makes me feel good all over ... but it shouldn't have anything to do with where you locate your new facility.

That's a business decision, and should be made on the basis of dollars and cents, near-term and long-range. It should be based on what's best for your business. Let's face it - moms take their kids to play in the park every day in every city and town in America. Same thing for the lawn mowing and the church gathering.

True quality of life means being able to live the American Dream - to be able to afford to own a home, to be able to raise a family in an environment free from violent crime, to be able to send your kids to quality public schools that actually prepare them for college and success in life, to have community colleges that offer adult education courses that enable self-improvement, to not have to face daily two and three hour commutes.

Jimmy Stewart would call it the good life.

Those types of communities exist all over the country, where the "good life" is available. It's all a matter of cost. Some are cheaper than others, and that's where the business aspects of quality of life come into play.

Having your employees be able to tap into the "good life" at the $30,000 to $40,000 level is a lot cheaper for your company than locating in a community where the entry level for the American Dream starts at $50,000 to $60,000.

To me, that's a truer measure of quality of life than beng able to go to a theater and listen to people dressed up as Vikings bellow out songs in a language you don't understand.