The biological standard of living and the Antebellum Puzzle

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Economics - Micro-economics grade: 17 LMU Munich (VWL Lehrstuhl) course: Strategic Factors in the Economic Development of the United States language: English abstract: Imagine someone came up to you and asked you: name three aspects that inyour opinion are of great significance to a high standard of living what would you say? What determines your perspective towards the standard of living? Do you give priority to income and wealth? To personal freedom? Or to health? With regard to our today's society where most products are being invented in order to make our lives more comfortable it is interesting how the standard of living can be measured best.The most widely adopted measurement of the material standard of living isGDP per capita adjusted for changes in the price level called inflation or deflation.Usually one might guess that through a higher GDP per capita the income and the personal wealth rises and therefore the standard of living also increases. This nevertheless does not reflect the distribution of income or the environment that affects health and safety. Moreover crime pollution and congestion - which are for many people negatively correlated with their quality of life - are neither considered.GDP per capita therefore just measures the material standard of living but a lot of other factors are being ignored. That is the reason why the biological rather than the material standard of living should be contemplated in terms of measuring the quality of life.A second possibility to measure the standard of living is the HDI (HumanDevelopment Index). It consists of 1/3 GDP per capita 1/3 life expectancy index plus 1/3 education index. Here the standard of living does not solely depend on material assets but also on life expectancy which contains health and the environment and education. However important factors for the wellbeing like the political system in the country or huma