INCOMES IN BRITAIN.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17118, 13 April 1921, Page 11

INCOMES IN BRITAIN.

.Tho socialistic idea of wealth was revived in a lecture- recent* ly by Sir Josiah Stamp. Ho presented; statistical evidence showing that since 1801 there had been a uniform incixiaso in* wealth in all classes, leav* ing the Aslope" of distribution unchanged. Tho average person in 1014 had twice the money mccttie of the Corresponding person in 1801, and each »£1 liad twice the purchasing power, so that practically all closecs were four times as well ofi/in real comforts aild commodities, and tho standard of living was now four times as good as it was 120 years Rgo. The general conception of .a 'living wage" was, to a very considerable extent, not absolute at all, buKrelativc to the particular age ih which we live. Dealing with the question as to what -the result would be if, in 1010-20, all the income* of the better-off people were pooled among tlie poorer, >Sir Josiah said that if all the people with more than £250 a year had tho surplus above that I amount put into a,common pooJ ; there ! would be available, after providing for the* upkeep of the public t services.' ! through the taxation at present paid by that class, and also for the capital extensions (for which that clsas provided out of savings) on a scale appreaching the pre-war proportions, a net simi which, aivided among the population would increase the income of each family by abyut £l4 a year, or, say. Os n week as a maximum. This would apply to the first year of pooling only as in the succeeding ytars it would l>a much .smaller, probably not •more than £'o or £6 per family per annum. The distribution of capital wealth showed that some-400,000 people held two-thirds of the whole" wealth, and ft section of numbering So,000, held one-third of the total wealth. He added that, of the- total valued created in industry, probably som* 30 to 35 per cent, went to employer*, capital, and other people who were not paid wage, and salary earners engaged in production. There was not enough, alf.told, in the whole prewar quantity of production, evealy divided to. provide t# substantially higher standard of lift* than was then enjoyed, and not by an altered distribution of it, but only by increasing its totajvolunie could any important general improve- ' Kent be attained.