Various attempts have been made to learn how consumers actually apportion their expenditures in the satisfaction of their different needs. Such a study was made by Le Play, in the early part of the nineteenth century in France. Dr. Engel of Saxony, after examining the data of Le Play and making extensive investigations of his own, laid down the four following propositions:

First, the larger the income of the family the smaller is the percentage of it expended for food.

Second, the percentage of outlay for clothing is approximately the same for large as for small incomes.

Third, the percentage spent for rent and for fuel and lighting is approximately the same whatever the income.

Fourth, the larger the income the larger is the percentage expended for education, health, recreation, amusements, and so forth.

The following table compiled by Engel shows the percentage of expenditure made for different purposes by families in Saxony with different classes of income.

On the basis of a number of studies of family budgets made in this country 1 Dr. Streightoff would modify Engel's laws to read as follows:

As the income increases :

1. The proportionate expenditure for food

(a) decreases for the country at large from 50 per cent to 37 per cent, but

(b) in New York City, it amounts to almost 45 per cent of the total outlay until an income of $1000 is attained.

2. There is a strong tendency for the percentage of expenditure for clothing to increase.

3. Relative expenditures for housing

(a) remain about constant for the country at large, falling very slightly after $400 incomes have been reached, but (6) decrease rapidly from 30 per cent, or more, to 16 per cent in New York City.

1 Streightoff, The Standard of Living, p. 20.

4. Proportionate expenditures for fuel and light decrease.

5. Expenditure for culture wants increases absolutely and relatively. The following table,1 showing distribution of expenditures in workingmen's families in Massachusetts, will serve to illustrate Dr. Streightoff's findings, although they are not in conformity with them in all details.