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to get more income. For more than a decade the New Deal 

 was much interested in raising national income and boasted 

 of every advance. 



Was it possible for everyone to have low prices for the 

 articles he bought and at the same time for everyone to have 

 high incomes? 



Income is nothing more than the product of production 

 times price. This holds true for individuals, for industry, 

 and for the nation as a whole. Farmers produce a given 

 amount of crops, which they sell at a given price. The total 

 dollars they receive are their incomes. Laborers' incomes are 

 the product of the number of hours they work times the 

 wages they get. School teachers' incomes are a product of the 

 number of months they work times the salary they get. Man- 

 ufacturers' incomes are the product of the volume of goods 

 they produce times their price. National income is the prod- 

 uct of all the goods and services produced times their prices. 



Since everyone wanted more income and at the same time 

 wanted low prices for the things they bought, there was only 

 one way to have both, and that was to increase produc- 

 tion. In time of peace, farmers strove to produce more food. 

 Manufacturers, through plant expansion and increasing effi- 

 ciency, produced more goods. Laborers, through increasing 

 efficiency despite shorter hours, produced more of the good 

 things of life. School teachers, through more training, pro- 

 duced more service. Over a series of years the per capita pro- 

 duction of the nation gradually increased, and this resulted 

 in more income and a higher standard of living for all. 



However, when a nation is at war and its plant is operat- 

 ing at capacity, it is impossible to expand production. There 

 are not the plants, men, or raw materials available to in- 

 crease industrial output. The draft transferred men from 

 productive occupations to the military forces. It will also be 

 difficult in the near future to increase agricultural produc- 



