[Nifty3929]

"The standard of living for the bottom half of the developed world has arguably declined in the past few decades."

I am willing to hear this argument, but intuitively it seems like this is not the case. Does a poor person in Arkansas have a lower quality of life now than they had in the 1980's? I feel not, but I'm not sure how to measure or validate this. Income numbers aren't great, because often they don't account for various assistance programs and subsidies (not that assistance programs are a satisfying end-state).

I'd love to look at things like

- whether that have indoor plumbing (I would have assumed this was near 100% even in 1980, but I don't know).

- Ownership of microwaves, TVs, cars, etc.

- Hours spent working

- Usage of things that have made all our lives better, like vaccines and other medicine, internet, education, etc.

[tinyspacewizard]

It's debatable, of course. Some points I would add:

- Prices of healthcare, education and housing have increased in real terms

- Double income trap

- Shift from well paying union jobs to gig economy, temp agencies, Amazon warehouse etc. leading to precarious employment

- Opiod crisis

[ido]

I don’t know about the hypothetical average person from Arkansas but I’m sure the average Israeli, South Korean, Taiwanese, Czech and many others are immensely better off today than in 1980.

And in 40 years the same will be true for the average Indian, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi and the other fast growing developing economies of today (unless climate change wrecks havoc in the tropics by then).

We’re seeing the highest growth in the countries that aren’t already at the top.