ABSTRACT
A central theme of modern American life is the chance to enjoy a "middle-class standard of living". The prevailing view from the 1950s through the late 1960s was that the earnings of one full-time worker could purchase a middle standard of living for a household; the consumer-basket definition of the middle standard of living that is created here incorporates this perception. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) discontinued production of the family budget series in 1981, so a late 1980s version of the 1967 low, moderate, and higher standard of living budgets is not available. Simply inflating the cost of the 1960s basket by some form of consumer price index to late 1980s figures would not provide a satisfactory basis of comparison of changes in the ability of consumers to purchase a middle standard of living over the two-decade period.
