ABSTRACT
The housekeeping budgets now come into their own as the most important sources of relevant information. The task is to contrast approximately comparable budgets. The chapter presents equivalents of those American families whose household budgets we know about are therefore German working-class families with incomes of 1574 marks, 1737 marks and 1843 marks. The American worker spends his much higher income in satisfying more amply his 'necessary' requirements in life. In other words, he is better housed, he dresses better and he eats better than his German colleague. In a survey of 221 cases, income lay between 1201 and 1500 marks, in 303 cases it was between 1501 and 1800 marks, and in 169 cases between 1801 and 2100 marks. Thus, 693 cases had incomes between 1201 and 2100 marks. This chapter considers how income and expenditure are related to each other in the budgets that are compared and what prospect there is of saving in each case.
