The Good Life

The good life, said a woman in Kansas City, Mo., is "when you aren't up to dabbling in the luxuries but have lots more than the necessities." A Bostonian described it as "anyplace with nice lawns and a quiet suburban street." To average citizens in Kansas City and Boston, the good life means about $25,000 a year, a seven-room house in the suburbs, two cars and three weeks of vacation. Those conclusions were drawn from a survey of 900 people in the two metropolitan areas by Richard Coleman, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T. and Harvard University.

Among other things, he learned that Americans divide social and economic status into the following categories: a success elite (whose members earn at least $59,000 a year in current dollars), people doing very well (earning more than $37,000), the good life everyman style ($25,000), the average-man comfortable existence ($18,000), just getting along ($12,000) and having a real hard time ($7,500). Coleman found that what he considers "average" Americans (typically blue-collar workers earning $16,000 to $20,000 a year) hope to attain the good life. But few want to go any farther. Reason: while most envy the success elite's material comforts, only a handful want anything to do with the hard work necessary to achieve and maintain the highest status.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.