The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-05-22

you can take a government Stdn-
dard of living all right, when
comes the revolution after the
war is over you'll be that much
more content.
What does this government
imposted standard Of living do to
you?
The responsibilities of your
government in managing your
standard of living, rationing your
goods and writing your tax bills
are primarily three:
l. The supply of civilian
goods available for distribution
among the people must be equit-
ably apportioned. There must be
no more of this X cards for con-
gresSmen stuff.
2. Price ceilings must be rigid
Iy enforced. If bootlegging and
black marketing of scarce sup
plies are permitted TO start, not
only initiation will develop, but
chaos as well.
3. Every income group must
be equitably taxed and assessed
for savings. There can be no class
exemptions. States which now
permit husbands and wives to
file separate income tax returns
in order to escape the higher
surtax rates of a joint return are
simply allowing their citizens to
WEIGH on a national responsible
ity.
COST 40 PER CENT
What this full responsibility
amounts to, according to some
of the government economists
who are planning for the man.
agement of your wartime STAN
dard of living, is that the aver
age family in the next IL months
must be prepared to set aside
some 40 per cent of its income
for taxes and savings. That is an
unprecedented amount. Before
the war, any suggestion that
the American people could set
aside 40 cents out of every dol
lar would have been considered
preposterouS.
The way this works out for
the average person now is some
thing like this:
With total national income for
the coming year estimated at
Sll7 billion, TO be divided among
about 1870 million people, that
makes the gross per capita in
come around 5000 year. Put
40 per cent Of that-S360-in
savings and taxes, and it leaves
$40 a year for the per capita
spending money which will be
left for the necessities on this
governmentmanaged standard
Of living.
Bear in mind that these are
average figures. Some people
will be considerably above those
averages. A lot more people will
be way below them. Also bear in
mind that these are averages per
person, man, woman or child.
To fit them to family, multiply
those per capita figures by the
number of people in your family.
For an average family of three
mama, papa and the baby--it
would work as an income of
$1,000 a year, with $1,000 of it 60
ing into savings and taxes and
$500 of it left for the family
to squander.
SAME QUANTITY
What kind of a standard of
living do you get for this money?
In general, the idea is to give
you about the same quantity OF
food, fuel and shelter that you
enjoyed in the past, with certain
obvious exceptions and certain
local shortages in various areas.
Sugar and probably most of the
illipOi tcu loouotuilS INT SoilSC
and tea and bananas will be
down in consumption generally.
And in defense areas and war
production CenterS where there
have been big and sudden in
creases in population, shelter &C
commodations will be reduced.
Where you will be hit hardest
will be in the shortages in serv-
ices like deliveries, the shortages
of consumer goods such as house
furnishings and clothing.
Interpreting that in terms of
stuff you can buy in the stores,
it means that you will pay more
for food, whether you get it at
the grocery or in restaurant,
for the reason that only from so
to rs per cent Of the food items
arc covered by price freezing or
ders. What you can buy in cloth
ing stores, furniture stores, hard
ware stores, drug stores, filling
stations and general merchan-
disc emporiums will be darned
sight less.
WASHINGTON DOWN BEAT
Waste Paper Salvage for Vic
tory campaign has actually pro-
duced surplus, but don't stop
collecting. Idea is to maintain
the surplus CAV is new
slogan meaning you should per-