a higher standard of (higher) living?

coined around 1902, the expression "standard of living" was used by social scientists and the public to describe the rising conditions, and rising expectations for more and more rising conditions, of a materially-defined middle-class living standard.

it was not conceived in regards to "higher cultural" or intellectual standards of living.

it is kin to the getig world of ancient Iranian cosmology, to the "kingdom ("middle-classdom") of this world" (John 18:36), to the earthly of Augustine's cities, to "civilization" as a verb and noun, to Versailles and its copies, to "lives of quiet desperation" (Thoreau), Gilded Ages, consumerism, affluenza,...