The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that
the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused
by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to
the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the
increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies--increased
water-supply, service, repairs, etc.--is the main factor in the
undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in
Chapter VIII.
While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to
keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social
ethics--Euthenics, or the science of _better_ living--may well ask a
consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this increased cost
resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more healthy,
well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then is there
not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a fuller
life?
Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and
America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the
present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results.
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