AMERICAN PROSPERITY

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1927, Page 7

AMERICAN PROSPERITY

SOME ROLLING IN WEALTH MANY ON RAGGED EDGE. WHAT IT COSTS TO LIVE. The United States to-day is possessed of half the gold supply of the world. Since 1919 money has rolled into the United States Treasury in such volume that the national debt has been reduced by £1,700,000,000; and all Europe is its debtor for vast sums which will continue to flow westward for the next sixty years; direct taxation has been reduced till tlie average wage-earner with a family pays his Government nothing unless he is fortunate enough to earn more than £BOO annually, and wealth per capita is the highest in the history of any nation. For generations past (writer the New York correspondent of' the London Daily Telegraph) America has been regarded by Europeans as the land of plenty, of high wages and extravagance, and if in popular opinion New York's streets have not been literally paved with gold, the acquisition of that commodity here has been regarded as a matter of such comparative ease that residents have been looked upon as actual or potential millionaires. Be that as it niay, your everyday American is not nearly so sure of his own prosperity as statistics apparently declare him to be, and although he may be good-nat-uredly tolerant of his reputation abroad as a man of wealth, at the end of each year when he balances his books he is generally gratified if the figures show a small balance on the right side of the ledger. Against the American’s comparatively high income must be set the fact that bis dollar to-day buys less than 60 per cent.of what it did in 1913, and that the standard of living has risen far out of proportion to the contents of his weekly pay envelope. LUXURIES EMBARRASS. To-day, unless he be a man of exceptional determination, he must aspire to the ownership of a motor ear, a radio, and other modern luxuries. If he is married and has a family he must pay a rental for moderate accommodation of £25 per per month instead of £5 as In pre-war days. He must find the means for the purchase of expensive fur coats, of periodical "pennant nt” waves at £5 per wave for his wife’s hair. Doctors cost 12s per visit, and specialists would eat up the total of one’s bank balance or mortgaged income. College education for children whose forbears never dreamed of college are now the recognised obligation of the father of moderate means. Summer, holidays cost, even with rigid economy, £lO per person per week. REAL OR ARTIFICIAL. The question of whether American prosperity is real or artificial is therefore- debatable. Of money there is a plenteous Supply, jobs are abundant, and no one need go hungry or destitute, and yet charity organisations are Working overtime, hospi'al clinics are crowded, business failures are reported by the hundred every month, and without doubt there are more people living on the ragged edge than ever before in tlio country’s history. To what extent American prosperity is feeding upon its nerve or itself is a question which economists are debating. Over-production in most industries is enormous aud every device and argument known to an ingenious people is used to stimulate consumption. A thousand electrical appliances, for instance, are forced upon the householder in order to stimulate the consumption of electrical current. Great buildings easily good for another fifty years of service are torn down and structures many times greater containing thousands of tons of steel, brick and mortar are erected in their place. Household furnishings, kitchen utensils, heating appliances, motors, radios, etc., are cast aside for the “latest thing out.” People cannot afford them, but they are sold ou the “easy payments plan,” which means that salaries are mortgaged for a year or two in advance. If payments are not forthcoming, the article is taken back and the purchaser is out only the money he put into it, which would have been spent on something or other in any case. It is reasoned that only in the event of circumstances forcing a general stoppage of partial payments will industry become choked with its own output, and prosperity, as represented by steady employment and capacity production, come to an abrupt and disastrous end. America may be rolling in wealth, but the high cost and standard of living has greatly narrowed the margin of saving and the struggle of the majority to keep up with the procession and remain solvent is probably as difficult here as elsewhere.