Featuring
Robert E. Goodin
Australian National University
Lina Eriksson
Flinders University
Christian Barry
Australian National University; Ethics & International Affairs Editorial Board; Global Ethics Fellow Alumnus
Matt Peterson
The Atlantic; Former Ethics & International Affairs Assistant Editor
What does it mean to live well? Robert Goodin and Lina Eriksson discover that income figures don’t tell the whole story. Missing from this picture is the degree of control an individual has over how her time is spent.
What does it mean to live well? The U.S. Census Bureau informs us that an individual American with an income of less than $10,590 lives below the poverty line and is eligible for federal assistance. Add children and the number rises slowly: a father and two young children, say, is poor when their income is less than $16,689.
Certainly these numbers strike us immediately as indicative of low well being. But, as we are informed by Robert Goodin and Lina Eriksson, income figures don’t tell the whole story. Missing from this picture is the degree of control an individual has over how her time is spent.
