4 ms·
> Standard of living is not identical with the percentage of national income you have. I totally agree and didn't mean to imply this. My point is that the medi
by Benjo 16y ago
> Standard of living is not identical with the percentage of national income you have.
I totally agree and didn't mean to imply this. My point is that the median income level as an absolute, adjusted for inflation, has not increased significantly since 1970. I believe this does correlate fairly well to standard of living over the long term.
EDIT: Here's one source. Open to criticism.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci120a/immigration/Median%20Household%20Income.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci120a/immigration/Median...
- dcbell 16y agoIt would correlate, except so many things have gotten dramatically cheaper while the cost of, say, bread has stayed the same (adjusted for inflation). It's possible for inflation-adjusted income to stagnate while standard of living increases, and I'd argue that it has. As petty as it sounds, I'm pretty glad I live in a world with Google.
- Benjo 16y agoThis may be a gap in my understanding of objective measures of standard of living. I agree I'd rather have Google. I'll have to do some research. It may be a moot point, since no one can objectively compare their standard of living to that of an equivalent person 40 years ago (or even themselves 40 years ago.)
- ootachi 16y agoDepends how you define standard of living. If we consider "standard of living" to mean "happiness", as you seem to imply, that actually correlates well with real (inflation/CPI-adjusted) income. Accordingly, happiness levels have been flat and/or declining for the vast majority of the population [1], just as real wages have. [1]: http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7487.html http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7487.html