The average life expectancy in 1900 was 47 years. Today it is 77, and rising.
The infant-mortality rate has dropped from 1 in 10 to 1 in 150.
ÒPoorÓ Americans today have routine access to a quality of housing, food, health care, consumer products, entertainment, communications and transportation that even the Vanderbilts, Carnegies and Rockefellers could only dream of.
A farmer a century ago could produce only one-hundredth of what his counterpart is capable of growing and harvesting today.
In the 19th century, almost all teenagers toiled in factories or fields. Now, 9 in 10 attend high school.
TodayÕs Americans have three times more leisure time than their great-grandparents did.
The price of food relative to wages has plummeted: In the early part of this century the average American had to work two hours to earn enough to purchase a chicken, compared with 20 minutes today.