Americans — even many of the poorest — enjoy a level of material abundance unthinkable just a generation or two ago.

[D]espite improved living standards, the poor have fallen further behind the middle class and the affluent in both income and consumption. Since the 1980s, for instance, the real price of a midrange color television has plummeted about tenfold.

The costs of a college education and health care have soared. Child care also remains only a small sliver of the consumption of poor families because it is simply too expensive.

Via New York Times.