ABSTRACT
The comparative validity of different political creeds depends, much more than their holders commonly realize, on the actual statistics of the distribution of the national income. Many conservatives honestly believe that though there is some inequality, it is neither overwhelming nor much greater than is inevitable; and that while there is some extreme poverty, its existence and cause are exceptional. The communists believe that practically the whole of the community lives in sheer destitution, except for a tiny minority who enjoy the extremity of affluence. The facts, however, are perfectly ascertainable. It is possible to give a reasonably accurate outline of the distribution of money incomes, and the absolute and relative movement in recent years of real incomes, both in Great Britain and the United States. A large proportion of the nation’s children are inevitably in the families of wage-earners with two children or more.
