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Abstract
Measures of per capita dollar incomes seem, at first hand, to be a good simple first approximation
to obtaining some idea of the differences that exist between farmers' living standards
and those of nonfarmers at any one point in time. But unfortunately, the following
factors, among others, make the correspondence of income and living standards difficult:
(1) The consideration of assets accumulated by both groups, (2) differences between farm
and city "ways of life," (3) valuation problems with respect to dwellings, especially farm
dwellings, (4) valuation of home-produced food and fuel consumed on the farm, and (5)
differences between prices paid by farmers and nonfarmers for the goods and services they
consume. This paper is addressed to item 5. In other words, after obtaining measures of
income for both farm and nonfarm populations, and adjusting them for factors 1, 2, 3,
and 4, is there left enough difference between the purchasing powers of such incomes to
warrant a further adjustment in the basic income estimates to translate them into comparable
measures of living stan,dards? This is the question that the author of this article
examines.