2 BULLETIN 1466, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
In attempting to answer these questions one runs into still 
other questions: Does economic progress mean a higher standard 
of living for the farm family? Is family living curtailed in order 
that the farmer may advance economically ? Does the use of time by 
the different members of the family play any considerable part in 
the enjoyment of the satisfactions from farming and its environment ? 
Does isolation bear any direct relation to the standard of living? Is 
schooling of the parents indicative of the comforts, the satisfactions, 
and the opportunities for improvement provided for the farm fam- 
ily? Do ages of the parents and periods of growth and development 
of the children bear a tlirect relation to the economic goods of family 
living? To what extent does the number of children supported in 
the home affect the standard of living? 
Ordinarily the term " standard of living " conveys different ideas 
to different people. To many it means the sum total of economic 
goods meeting only the material or the physical needs of the family — 
food, housing, and clothing. To others it may mean emphasis on 
goods of a psychic or subjective nature, such as education, social, 
or personal improvement, at the expense of adequate food, housing, 
or clothing. 
The term as here used includes the economic goods contributing 
to the maintenance of health, transportation, education, recreation, 
and social relationships of the family, as well as those satisfying the 
more material needs — food, housing, fuel, and clothing. 
In most of the studies of family living made in the past, the 
standard of living has been measured in terms of " dollars worth " 
of goods consumed by the family during one year. Estimates have 
been obtained and averages have been determined to show the money 
value of the food, house rent, and fuel furnished by the farm for 
farm families. Studies have been made of the money spent for 
food, clothing, housing, fuel, furniture and furnishings, household- 
operation goods, transportation, health facilities, education, recrea- 
tion, religion, personal and other goods purchased for use by laborer's 
families. In other words, practically all studies of the standard of 
living have been studies of the cost of living, primarily, and they 
give little information as to the comforts and the satisfactions 
obtained for the money spent. 
A variation of the amount of money spent annually, as shown by 
these studies, is the percentage distribution of the total amount of 
money for the principal groups of goods included in the family liv- 
ing. Thus, cost of living when distributed among food, clothing, 
rent, operation goods, and other goods has come to give a clearer 
and more definite picture of family living than when used to cover 
all goods used, blanket fashion. 
This use of the distribution of the cost of living has been the fore- 
runner of several widely accepted generalizations as to the propor- 
tions of the total cost of living devoted to the principal groups of 
goods used by families having access to incomes of different sizes. 
These generalizations were originated from an early study based 
chiefly on the records of families of European industrial workers, 
many of whom had such low incomes that nearly the entire amount 
was needed to meet the physical necessities of food, shelter, and 
clothing. 
