Early on in my principles of economics course, I spend a good deal of time demonstrating to students just how fantastically far we have come (in America and the world around) in a material sense (and in many other senses too). Too much data to show here, but for example, in just the course of a century, the typical American has an income seven times larger than his 1900 predecessor. And that income buys a far more interesting and important variety of goods and services today.

But, it is argued, life is far more precious that focusing on material measures. Materialism corrupts the soul. And we need to look at more holistic estimates of what a good standard of living is than focusing on material advances. In future posts I will slowly share the preponderance of data I show my classes. For now, I want to address the criticism as an idea.