Trends in the Level and Distribution of U.S. Living Standards: 1973-1993
Author(s)
Burtless, Gary
Abstract
Americans who want to know whether living standards have improved or stagnated during the past twenty years are faced with a puzzle…. Real personal consumption expenditures per person climbed 37.3 percent between 1973 and 1993 however other data suggest that real median family income was essentially the same in both 1973 and 1993. This article offers a solution to the puzzle, reconciling the two sets of data and revealing that growing income inequality is one among several factors causing the divergence between per capita consumption and median family income. It then examines some of the changing patterns of income distribution that have led to rising inequality.
