Report Outline
Impact of Wace-Price Spiral of Static Incomes
Patterns of Real Income in Price Inflation
Proposals for Easing Unequal Pressures
Special Focus
Impact of Wace-Price Spiral of Static Incomes
As The cost of living continues to move upward, increasing concern is being expressed in many quarters over the plight of persons and families dependent upon fixed incomes or relatively inflexible incomes. During and since the war most Americans have received substantial increases in dollar income with which to meet higher living costs. But many persons and families have been unable to obtain any income adjustments and others have achieved only partial adjustments to rising prices, with the result that the living standards of these groups have declined.
President Truman told Congress in his State of the Union message, Jan. 7, 1948, that “inflation in this country is undermining the living standards of millions of American families.” And in his budget message, Jan. 12, he directed particular attention to the burdens being borne by federal employees and annuitants as a result of increased prices.
After completing a survey of living costs in eastern states for the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Sen. Flanders (R., Vt.) reported in December that the number of persons finding it impossible to adjust income to living costs wag growing and that the condition of this group constituted “our most serious internal social problem.” |
