The items which go to make up a high standard of living include other things than material articles of consumption. Those who will not marry until, as suggested above, they are reasonably certain of being able t6 educate their children, have a high stand ard of living. Such a desire to safeguard the welfare of their future children has the same effect on marriage rates and mar riage ages as the desire for beefsteak and race track tickets. Even a high degree of thrift may be a mark of a high standard of living. He who will not marry until he can afford a sizeable in surance policy or bank account may be called a thrifty individual, but he also has a high standard of living. In such a case the desire for an insurance policy or a bank account has the same effect on the postponement of marriage as the desire for a motor car or an eight-room house and must be accounted as a part of a high standard of living. Certain it is that if no one would marry until he had an insurance policy or a bank account, no children would be legitimately born except in families which, at one time at least, had insurance policies or bank accounts. There would gen erally be no poverty except as the result of unforeseen disasters which dissipated savings and cut off incomes out of which sav ings were made. It is well to remember that this balancing of sex against other desires is conditioned upon an economic system which imposes parental responsibility. If one did not have to pay the expenses of one's own family, no other desires would have to be sacrificed when the procreative desires were gratified.
Different nations, and different classes within each nation may have different standards of living in the strict as well as in the general sense of the term. There are, however, no statistics avail able which throw any very direct light on these differences in the stricter sense. Some indirect light is thrown on the subject by an exceedingly valuable study by Baber and Ross on "Changes in the Size of American Families in One Generation" (University of Wisconsin Studies in the Social Sciences and History, No. Io, Madison, 1924). Tables are included which show that farmers and labourers tend to marry earlier than business and professional men ; other tables show that on the average, more children are born of early than of late marriages.
Most of the statistical studies of standards of living have to do with the loose, general, and semi-popular meaning of the term. Family budgets as evidences of the spending habits of people with different incomes, were the first records to be studied sta tistically with a view to determining standards of living. The most famous of these is that of Dr. Ernst Engel. The following table summarizes the general results of that study.
The only striking thing about this table is that it shows that as incomes increase the percentage spent for the basic necessaries decreases while the percentage spent for education, health, com fort, etc., increases.
A fairly clear idea of the comparative standard of living of different countries and at different times may be gained from a study of the relative cost of living.
A comparison of the changes in the cost of living in different countries is contained in the following table. These, together with the statistics of wages, furnish the best information available as to the standards of living of wage workers in those countries: The changes in the cost of living have been compared with the changes in money wages in order to give the trend of real wages in various countries.
A somewhat more elaborate study was made in 1909 by Robert Coit Chapin in his Standard of Living in New York City, page 70. The following is a brief summary of his more elaborate table: On the basis of these studies of actual budgets, various esti mates have been made as to the money income necessary at existing prices to enable an average family to maintain a satis factory standard of living. Of course something depends upon what the estimator considers a satisfactory standard. One of the best of these estimates was made by Robert Coit Chapin in 1909. His estimate was that in New York City in that year $900.00' was necessary. Various other estimates, based on different price levels and costs of living are tabulated by Paul Douglas in his Wages and the Family'. A summary of this tabulation follows: 'Cf. The Standard of Living Among Workingmen's Families in New York City, p. 246.
'Chicago, 1925, pp. 7 and 8.
It is frequently asserted that because the well-to-do classes have a low and the poor a high birth rate, the difference in wealth is the cause of the difference in the birth rate. On the mere ground
of probability it would be at least as likely that the causal con nection is the exact reverse, or that the difference in the birth rate is the cause of the difference in prosperity. There are some rather strong reasons for believing that, in the same economic class, an increase of prosperity increases rather than decreases the birth rate. If, without first raising the standard of living, in the strictly technical sense, a given economic class is provided with larger incomes, the larger incomes are used as a means of earlier marriages and larger families.
From Malthus to the present day, it has been recognized that a low standard of living among the working classes was the chief hindrance to the success of schemes of social betterment. Efforts to improve the condition of backward peoples are clearly frus trated by their enormous fecundity. During 4o years of British rule in Egypt, 1882-1922, the population doubled. This was made possible by irrigation and other economic improvements. Had the population not doubled, the lot of the masses might have been greatly improved. But with a low standard of living, the increased food supply merely resulted in a greater excess of births over deaths with no great improvement in the average well being. Similar results followed British rule in India, the French control of Algeria, the American occupation of the Philip pines and Puerto Rico. In every case, there has been a phenome nal increase in population, with no apparent change in the standard of living. The net result is, as Ross so expressively states, "The white race is today serving as a midwife to the blacks and the browns." If the standards of living of the blacks and the browns could have been raised while the productivity of their countries was being increased, the results would have been different. Instead of merely increasing the number of people living a miserable existence, white control would have lifted those people to a higher state of comfort. Similar results seem to follow most so-called humane movements for the improvement of the condi tion of the lower classes of labourers within advanced countries. So long as the standard of living remains low, men will marry as soon as they are assured of sufficient income to satisfy the basic necessaries of life. Any improvement in wages or employ ment is likely to result merely in earlier marriages and larger families with a consequent increase in the supply of labourers followed by a reduction of wages to the old level. On the other hand, if the reform can start with, or be accompanied by, a rise in the standard of living, this train of evil consequences will not follow. The real question, therefore, upon which the success of most schemes of social amelioration depends, is, Can the standard of living of the mass of the labourers be raised? For the more intelligent portion of the labouring classes the raising of the standard of living is not only feasible but offers the most effec tive means of social amelioration. For the less intelligent classes, those bordering on feeblemindedness, some more drastic method will have to be employed to prevent the overstocking of the labour market. The most significant discussion of the standard of living is found in Malthus's Essay on Population. Ricardo rec ognized it as an important factor in determining rates of wages. Most recent statistical studies of standards of living could have been called studies in costs of living. Probably the best of these is the "Report on The Standard of Living of Workers in Various Countries" to the International Economic Conference, Geneva (1927). Next in importance are a series of annual studies pub lished by the National Industrial Conference Board, New York.
Among the many volumes printed, the following are especially to be commended: Real Wages in The United States by Paul A. Douglas (Boston, 1930) ; Cost and Standards of Living by Thomas D. Elliot (Boston, 1931).
Numerous other studies have been made, notable among which are those of Henry Higgs, "Workingmen's Budget," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1893) ; Louise Bolard More on Wage Earner Budgets (N.Y., 1907) ; Frank Hatch Streightoff on The Standard of Living among the Industrial People of America (Boston, 1911) ; Wil liam C. Beyer, Rebekah P. Davis and Myra Thwing on Workingmen's Standard of Living in Philadelphia (N.Y., 1919), and a symposium by various writers on Standards of Living; a Compilation of Budgetary published by the Bureau of Applied Economics (Washington, 192c;). (T. N. C.)