"Not Prosperous"

Sharp pencil in hand, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale figured and figured, and last week announced that "while there is cause for national thanksgiving, the best available statistics show that the American people are not yet prosperous in any absolute sense." Four-fifths of them, or about 93,000,000 are earning little more than their barest living expenses.

His reasoning: Total U. S. income last year was nearly 90 billion dollars. Of this, 80% of the population, or about 93,000,000 (the "poorest" and the "lower middle classes") received 52.8%, or 47.5 billion dollars, or $510 each. That approximates $2,550 for the average family of five persons. It costs a minimum of $2,432.39 for such a family to live in the cities where most of them do live.