Standards of Living (Economic Growth PowerPoint)
American living standards have improved exponentially in the labor market. The average workweek in the early 1900s was sixty hours. It's now thirty-four hours. Also, more of the current workforce take vacations than in the previous century. In fact, the only thing about a job back then that was shorter was the commute. Quality of life after one stops working is much better--the concept of retirement didn't exist in 1900. Those employed today even spend less time on housework. With the development and expansion of household appliances, people nowadays spend three hours a week on things around the house versus twelve hours 100 years ago. This allowed women to increase their presence in the workforce from 18% to about 50% today.
It's possible for people to work less hours because income has increased by a factor of at least seven. The practical measure of income is qualitative: how much effort you have to exert to get what you want. Since the early 1900s, there has been a dramatic decrease in hours worked to obtain the goods and services we want. It takes 1/36th of the time to afford a bicycle than it did in 1900. Not only that, but today's bike is much nicer and is functional for longer. This further illustrates just how much richer we are now. In fact, once you factor in the functionality of products, we're over 25% richer.
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