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Methods and Standards of Living

No facile mathematical formula can be used to calculate what is the standard of living. One man's Standard is another man's poison. Yet there are certain measurables that enable generalisation. Professor Belshaw's preliminary canter in his pamphlet, "Standards of Living, Wages, and Prices" (procurable at Modern Books, Woodward St., for 1/6) endeavours to cover those classifiable elements in the standard of living.

The material elements—goods, services, food, clothing, house accommodation, medical attention, and so on—the relative prices of these provide a measure of their relative value in exchange. The so-called Index Numbers of the cost of living show changes in the purchasing power of money to the wage-earner over the goods and services he buys. The place of leisure is also not unimportant and again a standard of living is conditioned by the range of wants that we can satisfy during such free time. The intangibles cannot be measured except to say that their presence or absence contributes to the enjoyment of life. In this category the restriction of free speech since September 1939 might be regarded as limiting opportunities to live a full life and therefore is lowering the standard of living. It is with the material elements that the Professor is mainly concerned.

Such factors as the movements and the total real national income and the value of exports, the effect of the Reserve Bank credits, guaranteed prices and subsidies, on costs and prices are also discussed at some length. Add to this discussion of the Government's finance policy since. 1935 and its effect on the distribution of income, and one has a comprehensive view of those material elements that go to make up New Zealand's standard of living.

No mention is made however of the effect of speculation on prices that is especially present during wartime and which in a capitalistic economy, even with price control, is as unrestricted as ever.

In a concluding chapter the writer discusses the economics of fascism and socialism and expresses his preference for the latter, with various qualifications. The object of the pamphlet is, as described in the foreword, to analyse the problems connected with the standards of living as they exist in a capitalist democracy, from the point of view of the successful administration of the latter.