@grantmeaname I was referring to 2handband's own hunter/gatherer principle of "do the bare minimum work necessary to sustain your existence, and spend the rest of your time fucking off. If everybody did this, it would be a happier world and we'd get to watch the horror that is industrial civilization collapse overnight." 2handband would not be able to enjoy his current lifestyle were it not for some aspects of modern society. So, I was referring to IBR as one example. Some, 2handband et al., may choose a lifestyle in which they do the bare minimum work (in the current system) and if they want to call it a hunter/gatherer principle, so be it. Good for them, we all live how we want, like I said I'm willing and happy to pay my share of taxes. My point was, if everyone did this, that bare minimum amount of work to sustain existence might go up in terms of real effort (as disability insurance, unemployment insurance, roads, IBR systems, loans for education etc. would go away or crumble). I wasn't trying to be anthropologically correct, just going off of 2handband's principle. Little bit of moral hazard involved but I digress.
@Bakari
I don't disagree with anything you are saying. I just want throw out there that standard of living is a fickle phrase and could mean a lot of different things to different people. I, for instance, with a bit of background in demography, would automatically associate standard of living as life expectancies from certain ages at different points in time (both total LE and healthy LE) or look at age-adjusted mortality rates but I see your point. I'm admittedly biased to try to not define standard of living in $. I think it's depressing in a way. I may be in the minority on that, that's fine. All that being said, I'm glad I was born in the 80's rather than prior to that.
As for reducing consumption back to levels in the 60's when standard of living (via $) was relatively the same, that's great in theory but.........the cost of many things has dropped in real terms. Aren't food, clothing, and virtually all technology products (after their inception) cheaper now? It's cool to think about but the problem with ceteris paribus is that the ceteris is never paribus.