The Cost of Living ,
Everybody knows that the rise in the cost of living is a real hardship, but it is taking a long time for discussion of the subject to reach the point at which real remedies can be applied. In fact by the time that point is reached, if ever, rearmament may have ruled out all but the most painful and drastic remedies. A few weeks ago the Chancellor of the Exchequer was arguing, in flat contradic- tion even of the published figures, let alone the obvious facts, that the rise in prices had slowed down. Last week a number of Govern- ment supporters asserted in the Commons that there wan no point in substituting a new measure for the present interim index of retail prices, even though that index is not adequately reflecting the rise in living costs. Nevertheless it was agreed that the Cost of Living Advisory Committee should meet to consider whether a new family budget survey should be undertaken, to replace the 1937-38 basis now in use, and whether a new retail price index should be con- structed. These, of course, are reasonable steps to take, but they cannot possibly be completed in a short time and they will not prevent living costs going up rapidly. It is extremely likely that they will soon begin to shoot up at such a rate that even the present index will reflect them and no amount of juggling with the rationing system will be able to disguise them. The root causes of the rise— the American price boom, the after-effects of devaluation and defence demands—have been operating for months on commodity and wholesale prices and they are now working their way through to the consumer. Not all of these causes of trouble can be elimi- nated. A small beginning was made last week with the arrange- ments for surveying raw material needs set on foot by President Truman and Mr. Attlee, but it is most essential if the best is to be made of a difficult situation that all members of the Government should freely admit the difficulties and cease to pretend that they are partly the victims of uncontrollable forces and, for the rest, in complete control of the situation.
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