Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-230) and index.

"The most widely cited social welfare statistics in the United States are based on tabulations of family income. The picture that emerges is cause for concern; real median family income has hardly risen since the early 1970s, while inequality has increased and poverty has remained high. Yet consumption-based statistics as employed in this work yield rigorous and quite different estimates of individual and social welfare. Closely linked to economic theory, Professor Slesnick's examination of standards of living, inequality, and poverty reveals that the U.S. standard of living has grown significantly and poverty has decreased to relatively low levels. Inequality does not show the classic U-turn that is widely reported. His assessment is drawn from extended period data in order to chart long-run trends. The work will be of interest to economists, sociologists, economic historians, political scientists, and other readers in the social and policy sciences. Designed to be accessible to noneconomists, it relegates technical details to appendixes."--Jacket.

SACFinal081324