Purse and Belly

Uncle Sam patted his purse. Yes, it was very, very full. For a long time the Census Bureau has been adding and subtracting and multiplying and dividing. And last week the Census Bureau finally figured how much was in the purse--on Dec. 31, 1922. On that day the purse held $320,803,862,000--a lot of money.

But what does $320,803,862,000 mean? It means that the average wealth per capita in this country is $2,918. For 1912, ten year's earlier, the Census Bureau added up Uncle Sam's purse contents and found $186,299,664,000--a per capita wealth of $1,950. In other words our money value as a nation increased 72.2% in ten years, and our money value, as individuals, increased 49.6% (not so much, because there are more of us).

But this is not all the story. During the ten years, money decreased in value--in other words, prices rose. Allowing for the decrease in money's value, our wealth as a nation was 11.5% greater in 1922 than in 1912. In the same time our population increased about 15%. To put it in another way, our individual wealth in money increased 49.6%; the cost of living increased between 50% and 60%. As individuals we have actually grown poorer.

This does not apply to the average factory worker. According to statistics, his average weekly earnings in 1922 were about 100% higher than in 1912. He gained individually. But the average individual is not so well off as a decade earlier.

The dollar dinner of 1912, costing, say $1.55 in 1922, was no more filling to the belly than in 1912. And the citizen who paid for it wasn't making any gain by exchanging the dollar in his purse in 1912 for $1.49 in 1922. Uncle Sam patted his purse, but he had no cause to pat his belly.