In a little over two months Romania will become a member state of the European Union. How would that change our living standards in 2007?

This is a crucial question in a country where most of the income people earn goes on food. Still, are Romanians aware which the meaning of good standards of living is? Do they know these are not confined to a large offer of merchandise on the shelves of market stores and to discount prices?

Unfortunately, the good standard of living which brings along diverse living styles is a rare breed in Romania.

The super-rich have the same things: a mansion or more, a top of the line car for each family member, and two or three cell phones they display on the table at their business meetings.

The better-off, which start to form the middle-income strata, have one apartment in a block of flats, one color TV set, a foreign-made car, and dream to buy one day an individual home, or sometimes they already did so.

The poor, however, have more access to individual life-styles, provided, that is, they are educated, and have cultivated minds, full of ideas and personal aspirations towards a standard of living where good-taste should rule.

The very-very-poor also lack individuality in their poverty, as the very rich do in their wealth.

There is still confusion in Romania over what normal standards of living mean. For now, people still think it is about food. The notions of living conditions, work place, social climate, education, health, choices for spending free time, or information opportunities are only now starting to creep into the public mind as having to do with living standards.

The perception of wealth is individual, and yet it can be measured sociologically.

An abstract wealth, however, is non-existent.

It would be easy if people could be fed on averages of economic indicators, but th