The Standard of Living .
The first results of the Ministry of Labour's inquiry into the cost of living in 1937-38 have new been published. They reveal the standard of living as expressed in the expenditure of 8,905 families from whom—out of ao,000—full returns were obtained. Agricultural workers and those in long-continued unemploy- ment are excluded, but for the rest care was taken to ensure that the families were representative of the manual wage-earning class or those of non-manual workers with salaries not exceeding £250 a year. The inquiry concerns expenditure alone, not in- come, and thus concerns only the actual standard of living. The average family, it appears, consisted of 31 persons, of whom 11 were wage-earners ; its expenditure amounted to 85s. ; and it lived in four rooms. The expenditure was reasonably distributed between food, 34s id.; rent and rates, ios. rod.; clothing 8s. id.; fuel and light, 6s. 5d. ; and other items, 25s. 7d. The figures show that 4o per cent. goes to food instead of 6o per cent. as in the official cost of living index; 13 per cent. to rent instead of 16 per cent.; and 9 to to per cent. to clothing instead of 12 per cent., from which it may be concluded that the cost of living index is out-of-date and misleading. The general picture of the standard of living given by the analysis is more satisfactory than had been suspected. But it must not be forgotten that it leaves out the agricultural workers and the whole body of those who suffer from chronic unemployment. Secondly, since it is an average, the more prosperous conceal the distress of those near the poverty-line. The small families, with their higher standards, are thrown into the balance with the large families, with their lower standards. The figures completely conceal the greatest tragedy of working-class life—the depressed standard of living of the worker with a wife and several dependent children. They do not disclose the mal-distrihution of the workers' incomes.
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