Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/238

216 We were selling to Europe a large proportion of our produce, at more or less inconvenience to ourselves. We should not, perhaps, undertake to draw excessively fine points from these data, but the main thing is clearly established, viz., that our fancied prosperity was a consequence of inflation and not of any matenialmaterial [sic] progress.

Our surplus earnings, also inflated during the war period and subsequently, went to pay for the cost of the war. When the war expenses declined and we had again a chance to save we did not begin to do so but increased our extravagance in living. In 1919 the nation’s living expenses were about 51 billion dollars. Out of this we were paying expense of national government, about 3.5 billion dollars; expense of state and municipal governments, about 3.5 billion dollars. For admissions to theaters we were paying about $750,000,000; for new automobiles about the same amount; for candy and chewing gum about $250,000,000; for non-alcoholic beverages about $575,000,000; for jewelry, watches, etc., about $250,000,000; for furs about $150,000,000. These figures are computed from the internal revenue collections for 1919-1920, assuming that the tax averaged 10 per cent in each case.

What was the expense of operating automobiles for purposes of pleasure or semi-pleasure> Nobody can do more than conjecture and get a rough idea. The