tazzygirl
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quote:
How was the quality of life in the 70s compared to today? Or fifteen years ago?
The term quality of life (QOL) references the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income. Instead, standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment, but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life
So, lets go with standard of living instead.
Current
The median income is $43,318 per household ($26,000 per household member)[1] with 42% of households having two income earners.[37] Meanwhile, the median income of the average American age 25+ was roughly $32,000[2] ($39,000 if only counting those employed full-time between the ages of 25 to 64) in 2005.[3] According to the CIA the gini index which measures income inequality (the higher the less equal the income distribution) was clocked at 45.0 in 2005,[38] compared to 32.0 in the European Union[39] and 28.3 in Germany.[40]
|The US has... a per capita GDP [PPP] of $42,000... The [recent] onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market"... Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households... The rise in GDP in 2004 and 2005 was undergirded by substantial gains in labor productivity... Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade and budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups. -CIA factbook on the US economy, 2005.[38]
The United States has one of the widest rich-poor gaps of any high-income nation today, and that gap continues to grow.[41] In recent times, some prominent economists including Alan Greenspan have warned that the widening rich-poor gap in the U.S. population is a problem that could undermine and destabilize the country's economy and standard of living stating that "The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself".[42]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_the_United_States
Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You'd be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.
Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession – even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44962589
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RE: Elizabeth Warren & the Minimum Wage - 
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And you expect me to believe that she, with a 2 year old, went to school all on her own, no grants, no loans, no nothing, that she had to save up that money to go to nursing school because she couldnt get any help? 
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