Comments on: Are we Living Larger or Living Differently?

By: Posts I Enjoyed Last Week

Posts I Enjoyed Last Week — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:10:21 +0000

[...] Man at Lazy Man and Money wonders whether we are now living larger or just living differently. Things now are much different from those 30 years ago, are we supposed to live the [...]

By: » The Carnival is Up! on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog

» The Carnival is Up! on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:54:57 +0000

[...] Man wonders if we are living larger or living differently than the generations that have come before. He has some explanations for those in my generation not [...]

By: Twelve Posts of Review - May 2007

Twelve Posts of Review - May 2007 — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:55:40 +0000

[...] news article came up that Americans are living larger than usual. I argued that people are just living differently. Unexpectedly, it turned into a two-part [...]

By: Finance Markets

Finance Markets — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:54:28 +0000

Good comments – financial conditions vary so much when comparing decades that it’s very hard to make a comparison. Also, when you factor in increases in standard of living with increased price competition driving down consumer goods, it’s no surprise the modern situation is so different.

2c.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:11:54 +0000

Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Thanks for presenting a different perspective.

By: Super Saver

Super Saver — Sun, 27 May 2007 15:19:14 +0000

Lazy Man,

I think many people are living larger AND living differently. This begs the question of do we need to or do we choose to? My personal opinion is most of us choose to (which is ok) but rationalize it as we need to :-)

Here via the Sunday Review #22 by Golbguru.

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Sun, 27 May 2007 05:18:58 +0000

I don’t think workers at the bottom of the ecopnomy are living larger. I earn less today in real (inflation-adjusted) terms than I did in 1980.

By: Adventures In Money Making

Adventures In Money Making — Thu, 24 May 2007 19:27:07 +0000

the standard of living has been improving for decades. even the lower-middle class people
live better than british kings used to 500 years ago. (except for romans who’ve had indoor plumbing for 2000 years!)

By: MossySF

MossySF — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:38:05 +0000

I’ve seen stats that say the average sq ft was 1500 back then and it’s 2400 now.

Question is whether the living larger requires dual income — or dual income forces the living larger.

By: RateLadder.com

RateLadder.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:15:22 +0000

All I can say is thank you productivity… I love my quality of life.

By: KMC

KMC — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:10:20 +0000

To answer the title of your post exactly, just this morning I heard on NPR that 1 in 5 homes now have 4 bedrooms versus 1 in 6 in 1990. (I could find census data to confirm the 1990 number, but couldn’t find the more recent number) So, yeah, it appears we are living larger (at least our homes are).

By: plonkee

plonkee — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:56:35 +0000

Your reasoning explains how things have come to pass, but not whether that makes them good decisions any more.

FWIW if I really think about it, my mp3 player is verging on a necessity. Certainly if I broke it, I’d buy a new one. I’d never admit that in a survey though.

By: The Happy Rock

The Happy Rock — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:10:21 +0000

With dual income families I might offer that a lot of these situations are out of necessity. Even for the ones that don’t start out of necessity, the lifestyles choices often cement dual incomes as necessity.

It could be argued that dual incomes are needed because we are living bigger.

As for antennas, in a few weeks I hope to cancel cable, grab a set top antenna, and a lifetime tivo box. I will lose my Phillies games, but it something I can live with for a $700 savings a year( I could even get MLB TV for 90 bucks a year I think). Antennas have come along way, and even pick up HD channels and channels from other cities depending on location. Just a thought.

Here is just one example.
http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Amplified-High-Definition-Antenna-Reception/dp/B0007MXZB2/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-7792842-7985402?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1179939756&sr=8-4

By: dong

dong — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:35:00 +0000

This is actually one the bigger questions with regards to inflation. How do we measure it? Alot of people feel that the CPI is a poor measure of “True” inflation because it measures really just commodity cost. The oft cited example is that we have 100% more channels for cable and we pay 100% more for it, it costs the same because we have 100% more service. It’s not clear to me if that’s really a true measure. But at the same time is inflation suppose to measure standard of living improvements?