Evening star., 1949-10-09
ADEQUATE HEALTH SERVICES
FOR THE ENTIRE NATION

ADEQUATE HEALTH SERVICES
FOR THE ENTIRE NATION
energy on which we depended to-
run our machines. BY 1860 we
estimate that this inanimate or
machine" power will furnish 96
percent of the work-energy we use.
with animals and humans provid-
ing the rest.
From 1850 to 1910 our working
force increased six and half
times, but our use OF machine
power increased over $50 times.
We are indeed children of the
age of machine power. On that
source of power we mainly de-
pend for our ability to keep
on increasing our output per
hour of work. Let us assume, then.
that we shall retain and continue
to improve our machines. This
gives us a reasonable chance to
keep on increasing our output, to
provide more goods. more services.
more leisure-adding up to better
standard of living-for the aver
age American.
Potential Not Promise
Let us. further, make two fun
damental assumptions that under
lie this whole survey. Let us as
sumo that in the next 10 years
or so we shall have no war and no
major depression. Those are tre-
mendous assumptions. OF course.
But remember we are not trying
to predict anything. We are simply
trying to show what our economic
machine can produce, the plenty
it is capable of turning out for
the average Americn. if we operate
our economic system at high levels
such as prevailed during the last
half of the 1920s.
On that basis, we could reason
ably expect that in 1850 it would
be possible to provide jobs for well
over 60,000,000 Americans, turn
ing out at least sl.61 worth OF
goods and services iH an average
hours work, giving us total
national income OF more than
$3.50 600, 100000 with an average
work week of 38 hours.
We are a growing Nation. Our
birth rate, which dropped during
the depression years Of the 1930s,
bounded upward during the war
and afterward. The best author
tiles now believe that we shall con-
tinue to grow right through the
coming decades. More Of us will
live here, work here, spend here.
We ourselves offer a constantly
expanding market for our expand
ing production. Our average length
of life is increasing. A baby born
in 1901 could expect to live so
years. Our babies today look for
ward to an average life OF 50
years.
These figures show that, as a
long term trend, our population
is rising and so is our income. The
whole tendency of our economic
system is to bring up consumers
from lower income ranges into
higher. Over the years, fewer
families are left in the lower in
come brackets and more get
enough money to live comfortably.
Our yearly income per household
in 1860 is, likely to average at
least a thousand dollars more than
we received in 1910.
Market Is Inviting
AS potential market for goods.
we Americans offer some inviting
prospects. By 1860 we may fairly
look forward to providing a total
purchasing power two and a half
times what it was in the worst
year of the depression, about IS
per cent bigger than the boom"
year of 1929 and nearly half again
as large as 1941. That is the kind
of money which, taken together.
we shall have to spend; and that
is the kind of market that we
ourselves offer for future Ameri-
can business.
After we individual Americans
get our money income, what do
we spend it for? Taking all Of us
put together, nearly one-quarter
of all we spend as consumers goes
for food and nom alcoholic bev-
erages. In 1910 we spent approx
imately 1854 billion for food. In
addition, we spend $3.6 billion for
alcoholic beverages and $1.9 billion
for tobacco.
The food industry is our coun-
try's largest. Before the war, one
out Of every four workers worked
in ton the farm, in factories, in
stores.
We estimate that one-seventh
of American families in 1850 and