living standards are estimated with the help of copula functions that simulate the joint distribution of income and age at death in a montecarlo framework in a first step only the income dimension is considered upper curve in a second scenario individuals differ in their income but have a similar life expectancy which is nonetheless lower than the reference life expectancy in japan middle curve finally individuals have different income and ages at death and the latter two variables are considered as positively correlated in order to match the difference in life expectancy between the bottom and top quartiles of the income distribution using van raalte et al eventually the latter correlation may evolve over the long term due to changes in policy settings eg health or fiscal systems reforms or to trends in adverse selection patterns eg as chronic morbidity tends more often to yield rather than derivate from lowerincome status for a representative household earning the median income ie with the parameter of aversion to inequality close to income inequality involves a loss of of income versus for inequality in ages at death