An American Standard of Living is more than subsistence: it is a minimum standard along with the Appurtenances of Life--those extras that make life worth living.
Food, water, healthcare, education: these are the very basics. Any third-world country is capable of providing this minimum. But for the greatest country in the world, we can do better.
The United States seems to have trouble providing those special extras that citizens of a first-world nation deserve. We have a large poor and working-class segment that cannot enjoy a 14-day vacation, a movie at home with family, a picnic at the park, a class on meditation, or any one of several of the other Appurtenances to which life ought to be coupled.
An avocation for the elderly. A WPA-style program for young people and the marginalized. Symposia for the curious and skeptical. A recollection of the American Dream. An American Standard of Living is more than just the minimum--it is those little extras that make the American experience all the more worthwhile.
