What "The Standard of Living," by author Dorothy Parker, suggests about the beliefs, dreams, and value systems of today's materialistic society.

The following is a discussion of what the short story "The Standard of Living," by author Dorothy Parker, suggests about the beliefs, dreams, and value systems of today's materialistic society through a satire of the lives of two young American working girls. People are shallow, greedy, selfish, and generally immoral creatures--they were in 1941 (when the story was written) and they still are now. What some people do not accept is that a person's quality of …

…lives as simple wage earners. To me this indicates that, although the people of society have unlimited wants, few have ambition enough to try to satisfy those wants. I know that not everybody who is not rich is lazy, but I still feel that if a person is not willing to work for his or her goals, they do not have a right to complain about being poor when they have no legitimate reason to.