Following Julian Simon, I'd use "how much X can you buy with an hour's worth of work", where X can be food, a basket of goods [1], precious metals or whatever s

Following Julian Simon, I'd use "how much X can you buy with an hour's worth of work", where X can be food, a basket of goods [1], precious metals or whatever seems more appropriate. I think the official basket of goods can be taken as a good first approximation. [1] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/basket_of_goods.asp http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/basket_of_goods.asp