THE FAMILY BUDGET 181 



working for a wage, and who have received even a 

 substantial increase in incomes are relatively poorer 

 than they were before.* 



Why is it that the gains in wealth creation, the 

 marvellous inventions, the harnessing of power, the 

 increase in labor productivity more rapid than in 

 any previous age in history, should have passed by 

 all but a small handful of persons? Why should a 

 generation have so altered conditions that 2 per 

 cent, of the people own 60 per cent, of the wealth 

 of the country? Why should the advance in civili- 

 zation mean such a terrible burden to the great 

 bulk of our people when the wealth produced each 

 year is greater than the accumulated wealth of the 

 United States but thirty-five years ago? In 1916 

 we produced $45,000,000,000 of wealth. That is 

 $450 a person, or $2,250 for every family in the 

 coimtry. It is a sum adequate to raise a family in 

 comfort even at the present high cost of the neces- 

 sities of life. The explanation is not found in the 

 increased cost of labor, for the total wages paid in 

 the United States in 1916 amounted to but $5,320,- 

 000,000, or 11 per cent, of the total wealth produced. 

 And despite the increase in wages, the wealth pro- 

 duced per man has increased far more rapidly than 

 the increase in wage. In fact, it is a commonplace 



^ As shown in Chapter III, wages have increased not more than 18 

 per cent, during the past two years, while the cost of Uving, based 

 upon sixty articles of universal use, has gone up 85.32 per cent. 



