The Changing View of the Standard-of-Living Question in the United States
The standard-of-living question was initially framed by the long-running debate over the effects of the industrial revolution on the living conditions of ordinary people. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels posed the question most dramatically arguing that industrialization reduced both the absolute and relative standard of living for workers. This formulation of the question made both the average income and the distribution of income matter in treatments of the standard-of-living question. In principle, a rise in average per capita income could be accompanied by an increase in inequality so that the living standards of workers and their families did not necessarily improve with growth in per capita income. The debate over the trend in the standard of living, especially that of workers, was fierce and ongoing. By the 1920's, the weight of evidence had
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