On Rising American Living Standards

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In my latest column for AIER I again argue that it’s simply untrue that Americans’ living standards haven’t improved enormously over the past half-century. Two slices:

Start with what is perhaps the single most important feature of living standards, namely, the amount of time we live to enjoy those standards. Life expectancy has risen. Life expectancy today is three percent longer than in 2000, five percent longer than in 1990, eight percent longer than in 1980, 12 percent longer than in 1970, and 13 percent longer than in 1960.

In light of this happy trend it’s no surprise that the percentage of the US population who are age 100 and older is today (2020) 78 percent larger than in 2000, twice as large as in 1990, 4.2 times larger than in 1980, 6.3 times larger than in 1970, and 8.3 times larger than in 1960.

Because life expectancy rises when wealth increases, Americans’ rising living standards are not only themselves a component of wealth, they also reflect Americans’ rising wealth.

…..

Today, the average floor size of a new single-family home is 2,408 square feet. The floor size of this home is 6.3 percent larger than that of a new single-family home in 2000 (the year before China joined the World Trade Organization). It’s 16 percent larger than in 1990 (four years before the North American Free Trade Agreement was launched), 38 percent larger than in 1980 (five years after America last ran an annual trade surplus), 61 percent larger than in 1970, and 90 percent larger than in 1960.

This positive trend is even more impressive when accounting for the fall in the number of people who live in the average American household. Today, each resident of that household has 11 percent more square feet of living space than did a resident of an average new single-family home in 2000, 22 percent more space than in 1990, 53 percent more space than in 1980, 102 percent more space than in 1970, and 149 percent more space than in 1960.

I’m unable to find reliable data on the cubic footage of the average American home, and of how this measure has changed over time. (If you know of a source of such data, please share that source with me.) I’m willing to bet (literally!) that the average US home today not only has more square footage than it did in the past — say, in 1975 — but also more cubic footage.