How much is enough? To live decently, working families need a lot more than what low-wage jobs currently pay. They need social outlays and income supports as well as career horizons.(Economic Bridges)

ADAM SMITH, IN THE WEALTH OF NATION$, POSED THE QUESTION OF HOW TO define an adequate standard of living. "By necessaries," he wrote, "I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for support of life, but what ever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without." We've been debating what's indispensable, what's indecent, and what it means to be a "creditable" person within the sphere of our common moral concern ever since.

So what does it take to live at a ...

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