Cost of Better Living

One of the criticisms of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is that its cost-of-living index should actually be called the cost-of-living-better index. By reporting only selling prices and failing to identify quality improvements, the BLS long has given a distorted picture of what actually is happening in U.S. living conditions. This week, in a monumental 253-page book. How American Buying Habits Change (U.S. Government Printing Office; $1), the BLS handsomely made amends. It summarized the upgrading in the life of the average U.S. workingman since the bureau's first survey in 1888.

Despite the upward creep of prices, real incomes are climbing much faster. By 1950 the average city worker's purchasing power was 2 1/4 times greater, in constant dollars, than it was at the beginning of this century--not counting fringe gains.

As a result, the average worker spends far less, proportionately, on food, shelter and clothing. While he spent 80% of his entire income on these three necessities around 1900, he now spends only 57%. Clothing is no longer even one of the Big Three. The average worker's family spends a seventh of its income on transportation --mostly on the family car--only a ninth on its backs. It gets considerably more use for its money; e.g., the average scrapping age of automobiles rose from 6 1/2 years in 1925 to 13 in 1955, largely offsetting the increase in new-car prices.

With timely reference to the steel industry, the BLS report pointed out that the good life takes less effort all the time. In 1913 a BLS survey of the steelworkers' working conditions showed that 40% regularly worked 72 hours a week or longer. Their median income was less than $12.50 a week. By contrast, the most recent figures on 1959 steelworkers' pay show average weekly income (for 40.7 hours) of $125.36, with the union (see above) threatening to strike for more.

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