STANG THE AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING CHAPTER I THE STANDARD OF LIVING The American standard of living as understood by the “man of the street," and its conception in general as defined by modern economists. The conflicting issues involved in maintaining an American standard of living through immigration, tariff and labor legislation in the United States. International, economic, political and social problems arising from the varying standards of living. THE TERM AS UNDERSTOOD BY THE "MAN OF THE STREET The American standard of living in its influence on international relations is the subject of this monograph. Under this topic are subsumed many economic, political, and social problems, a satisfactory solution of which would remove much international misunderstanding, mistrust and maladjustment. The vague concept " American standard of living" has become a byword and catch phrase, and has been utilized with telling effect by the political orator. The expression has never been satisfactorily defined, although it is indissolubly interwoven with the question of wages. However, the phrase, reduced to its simplest terms, may be taken to signify that an American laborer obtains higher earnings and maintains a more luxurious style of living than does his foreign competitor. Under these conditions, the employer usually contends that it is necessary, in order that this remuneration shall be secured, to obtain higher prices for his goods, or to legislate for a higher tariff. When labor is scarce and the manufacturer cannot procure workers for his factory, he either encourages the importation of cheap labor, or legislates to obtain protective duties in favor of his business, in order that he may be enabled to go out in the open labor market and bid for his werkers. 66 Such is the association of ideas as applied to the term standard of living " by the lay reader, but this observation must be supplemented by the more exact, and narrowing meaning of the economist if there is to be a fuller understanding. The term standard of living among modern economists is used in a technical sense, and means, according to Taussig, "The mode activity and scale of comfort which a person has come to regard as indispensable to his happiness, and to secure and retain which he is willing to make any reasonable sacrifice." He considers that the growth of population is controlled by its standards of living, and that this is especially true among the industrial classes in progressive states. Many economists are convinced that the standard of living is the most powerful check upon overpopulation. In enlightened countries there is a strong tendency towards the raising of standards of living among the masses, with the attending benefit of material comforts and a more pleasant condition of life. com Fetter believes that the standard of living expresses the plex thought of that measure of necessities, comforts, and luxuries considered by any individual to be indispensable to himself and to his children, that measure which he will make great sacrifice to secure." The desire for a higher standard of living is, in his opinion, the most effective curtailment upon the population of any country. An opportunity was offered to India to raise its standard of living when the British opened up employment of all kinds, but to no avail. That country, like all Asiatic lands, "has a standard of living so low that it touches the minimum of existence." Carver defines a standard of living as denoting "the number of desires which, in the average person of the class in question, takes precedence over that group of desires which result in the multiplication of numbers." A country is assumed to have low standards of living when its people undertake the responsibility of a family before they are economically able to support it. In this instance, 1 Taussig, F. W., " Principles of Economics," 1913, pp. 308-14. 2 Fetter, F. A., " Economic Principles," 1918, p. 417. 3 Carver, T. N., "Principles of Political Economy," 1919, p. 393. |