The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-06-18

for bonds, that makes 40 per cent of my pay, and what do they ex- pect me to live on? Wages are frozen, cost of living is still going up, and I'm supposed to get by on 55 cents out of every dollar l make. What do they expect me to do-- sell the house or the car? Give up my life insurance? Starve?"
 Take it easy, chums, for 1t really isn't that tough.
 In the first place, the 20 per cent withholding tax called for under the new tax bill is gross figure. EX- emptions are provided, so the actual net payroll tax collected will run from nothing at all to maximum of 20 per cent. For the majority of the taxpayers, withholding taxes will average only about 12 per cent. VARYING PERCENTAGES
 In the second place, this 25 per cent of payroll contribution the Treasury is talking about is an av- craze figure. It doesn't mean that every Wage-earner is expected to kick in with 25 per cent of his pay for war savings as was the case with the campaign to get everyone to contribute 10 per cent of his pay. Some people obviously won't be able to boost their 10 per cent to 25 per cent. Others will be expected to do as much as 50 per cent. A number of cases are actually on record now in which some members of a family, all of whom are working, are sav- ing the full 100 per cent of their wages.
 Starting about June Is when the Treasury War Savings staff gets under way with it's new summer drive, the slogan is to be Figure It Out For Yourself" The idea is sim ply that every wage-earner should get pencil and paper, make out a new budget for the remainder of 1943, figuring in new taxes and cost of living expenses at present prices then determine what his maximum contribution for war bonds can be.
 This Treasury figure of 25 per cent average income savings hasn't been simply pulled out of the air. Treasury experts know that this surplus money is available, in sav- ings accounts or as hot money burn ing holes in the pockets of people who want to spend it on something -anything-just to get rid of it. AS loose spending money, this excess purchasing power is an inf1ationary threat and the idea is to blot it up with war bonds, not only to check imitation now, but to help finance the war effort, hold down the war debt, and indirectly provide savings for spending money in the post war period when the boom is all over. SIMPLE ARITHMETIC
 It is fairly simple matter for an economist to sit down and show that for 1943 there is approximately $43 billion excess money floating around loose. Gross income from wages for some 63 million American Wage-earners will be around $142 billion. Subtract $16 billion taxes and you have $126 billion net in come to be spent. But there will be only about $83 billion worth of goods and services to be bought for the simple reason that under war time restrictions there can't be more than that produced or available. Substract the 83 from the 126 and there's your $43 billion.
 The job is to find out which Wage-earners and which families have this extra money and take it away from them via the 25 per cent average, voluntary purchase plan. But 1t is to be an average and not 25 per cent fiat payroll deduction, straight across the board and re- gardless of income size or other conditions.