How the Worker Lives

Abstract

Now if the American worker receives a money-wage which is twice or three times that received by his German counterpart, but the procurement of the same quantity of the necessary means of sustenance is not really any more expensive than in Germany, what form does the American’s standard of living really take? In other words, what use does he make of his surplus income? Does he save more? Or does he fulfil his ‘necessary’ requirements of food, housing and clothing more extravagantly? Or does he spend more on luxuries? These are the three possibilities available to him.