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UnitedStates has seen a steady rise in its standard ofliving, the level of wealth available to a certainsocioeconomic class in order to acquire the material necessitiesand comforts to maintain its lifestyle. The standard of living isbased on factors such as income, employment, class, poverty rates,and housing affordability. Because standard of living is closelyrelated to quality of life, it can represent factors such as theability to afford a home, own a car, and take vacations.

In theUnited States, a small portion of the population has the means tothe highest standard of living. A Federal Reserve Bank study showsthat a mere one percent of the population holds one-third of ournation’s wealth (Kennickell 2009). Wealthy people receive the mostschooling, have better health, and consume the most goods andservices. Wealthy people also wield decision-making power. Manypeople think of the United States as a “middle-class society.” Theythink a few people are rich, a few are poor, and most are fairlywell off, existing in the middle of the social strata. But as thestudy mentioned above indicates, there is not an even distributionof wealth. Millions of women and men struggle to pay rent, buyfood, find work, and afford basic medical care. Women who aresingle heads of household tend to have a lower income and lowerstandard of living than their married or male counterparts. This isa worldwide phenomenon known as the “feminization of poverty”—whichacknowledges that women disproportionately make up the majority ofindividuals in poverty across the globe.