The code numbers identify the specifications used in pricing the articles and services for the budget. A detailed description of the items is available upon request. Cost is specified percentage of total cost of itemized outerwear, adjusted for intercity variations due to climatic differences. The percentages are as follows: Husband, 2.3 percent; and wife, 1.6 percent. Cost is specified percentage of the total cost of clothing, adjusted for Intercity variations due to climatic differences. The percentages are as follows: Husband, 2.6 percent; and wife, 7.0 percent. Cost is 1.3 times the cost of itemized clothing materials. Cost is 77.0 percent of lifts and heels. Cost is 18.0 percent of half soles and heels. 1 Cost is 28.0 percent of total cost of shoe repair. Cost is 19.8 percent of itemized clothing services. This group includes cleaning and blocking of hats, jewelry and watch repair, tailoring, and clothing repair. The average number of operations per year for an elderly man is .072; for an elderly woman, .053. About 60 percent of the operations among the men involve a genito-urinary condition, repair of hernias, or operations on the eye. Reduction of fractures and dislocations, operations on the eye, or conditions of the genito-urinary system accounted for 60 percent of the operations among elderly women. Estimated cost is 28.6 percent of cost of fillings, extractions, and cleaning. Estimated average cost in 1959, differs from city to city. Requirements specified for hospital services do not apply when the cost of these items is covered by a hospitalization insurance plan. Quantity per year 5.0 percent of total cost of goods and services. The budget assumes 45 percent of the couples have a family membership In a group hospitalization insurance plan. In cities where plans do not fully cover the cost of hospital ward accommodations and specified snelllary services, an additional allowance covering the cost of these benefits is previded. Estimated average cost in 1959. 14 Average prices for items selected to represent all types of prescriptions and nonprescription drugs commonly required by the family weighted by their relative Importances in the category of therapeutic end-use in which they were classified. 1 Cost is 5.2 percent of total cost of prescriptions and drugs, "The mode of transportation within metropolitan districts is related to location, size, and characteristics of the community. The average costs of automobile owners and nonowners were weighted by the following propor tion of families: for 3 cities in the Northeast region (New York, Philadelphia, and Boston) 14 percent for automobile owners, 86 percent for nonowners; for the remaining 17 cities for which budget costs were computed, 22 percent and 78 percent, respectively. Cost excluded in cities with mild climate. "Estimated average cost in 1959. This total varies for individual cities according to the differences in cost of labor and parts. The number of inspections required by law in each city. Cost is 5.7 percent of allowance for gasoline, motor oil lubrication, tires batteries, and repairs. Footnotes continued on p. 1157 therefore, special attention should be given to the concept, definitions, and coverage of the Retired Couple's Budget. It must be kept in mind that this budget relates not only to a specific type of family but also to a specified manner of living. Usually some adaptation of the budget is required before a direct comparison can be made with current money income of individual families or groups of families, or other money receipts must be considered in the comparison. The quantities and kinds of goods and services which make up the budget provide guides for appraising the content of the budget and establishing needs in various situations. For example, for some purposes, the cost of individual categories might prove more useful than the total cost of the budget. For others, it might be desirable to substitute homeowner costs for the rental housing provided by the budget since many older families own their homes; or to exclude the cost of medical care. 13 The budget provides a measure of differences in living costs between cities, and not differences in prices only. In addition to differences in price levels, intercity indexes based on the budget reflect climatic or regional differences in the quantities and types of items required to provide the specified standard of living. Care should be taken, however, in the conclusions drawn from such comparisons, especially by elderly couples considering a change in residence after retirement. The relative differences in costs are those of established families in each city and will not reflect differences in cost associated with moving from one city to another. For example, the rental cost in this budget is the average for occupied dwellings of a defined specification and may vary considerably from that of dwellings available for new residents. Neither do the intercity indexes provide a valid measure of differences in living costs for home owners. In evaluating the differences between the 1959 costs of the revised budget and the costs of the original budget when last priced in these cities in 1950, it must be kept in mind that the 1959 costs reflect not only increases in prices and sales taxes, but also the higher standard of living provided by the revised list of goods and services and procedural changes. The budget has been priced only in 20 cities, and cost estimates are not available for other cities, States, nor for the United States average. The budget costs given in this report, therefore, are not representative of the costs in all large cities or of those in cities of other sizes and economic characteristics. Neither are they representative of costs in these 20 cities at other dates. 11 Current money income is defined as regular income from all sources. It does not include inheritances, lump-sum payments from insurance or sale of property, or occasional gifts. For a detailed description of available data on income position of older persons and problems in evaluating income adequacy see, Background Paper on Income Maintenance prepared under direction of Planning Committee on Income Maintenance for the White House Conference on Aging, January 9-12, 1961 (Washington, D.C., June 1960); Margaret 8. Gordon, Aging and Income Security, in Aging and Society: A Handbook of Social Gerontology (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1960); and Lenore A. Epstein, Measuring the Economic Status of the Aged, (in Proceedings of the Fifth Congress of International Association of Gerontology. San Francisco, Calif., August 1960). Table 6 footnotes-Continued. Cost is 21.2 percent of annual allowance for reading materials, admissions, radis, television sets, and phonographs. Cost # 10.1 percent of annual allowance for husband's haircuts. Cost is 4.6 percent of annual allowance for Itemized personal services for Cost is 14.4 percent of annual allowance for itemized commodities. * Cost is 3.1 percent of annual allowance for itemized tobacco products. EXPLANATORY NOTES: The basic clothing budget is the average quantity for large cities and their saharbe. For each city, the quantity of clothing articles specified in the following tabulation are adjusted upward or downward in accordance with local climatic conditions, on the basis of the normal number of degree days as published by the U.S. Weather Bureau. The tabulation shows the quantities of specified items of clothing required when the normal number of anotul degree days average 1,400 and 7,850. (For definition of degree day, see footnote 3, table 5.) The quantities required for specifle cities were determined by straight-line interpolation. Suits: Item Husband Wool, heavyweight (3-plece).. Wool, beavyweight Rayon. Gloves, dress. Gloves, work. Other accessories ! The requirements are stated as percentages of total cost of itemized outerwear. The requirements are stated as percentages of the total cost of clothing. Only lightweight underwear was priced. The climatic adjustment of the quantities allows for substitution of heavyweight underwear in cold climates. Not required in cities with normal number of annual degree days less than 3,000. 27-166 0-64-pt. 1-18 Secretary WIRTZ. I have also given you the figure of what has happened to these medical costs over the years, and I think I have covered most of the points to which you refer except that I want to make it quite clear that although we will be glad to supply whatever averages, and medians, and means you request, when you say to me that older people have more money, more capital Mr. CURTIS. I said assets. Secretary WIRTZ (continuing). Than younger people, I have to inquire as to whether that means averaging in those who have done very well and whether that is going to submerge the problem of the 52 million who simply don't have the $2,500 a year, which is the key fact. Mr. CURTIS. We should know the average figure because we want to know how well people are doing as well as how poorly they are doing in evaluating a program that is going to affect those who have done well and those who have not done well. We want to know both, Mr. Secretary, and frankly, I am getting a little bit tired of this emphasis on failure and a disregard for success. In order to have good programs, I think we better start paying a lot of attention to success because there we might find the solutions to meeting the problems of failure in our existing society. I am concerned about this 5 million. That is a very interesting figure because Mr. Ball suggested yesterday that it may be 80 percent of our older people who needed help, which shocked me because I had always felt it was probably around 15 to 20 percent. This becomes important for us to have some idea of what is this group that is in difficulty. How large is it percentagewise, how large is it by individuals, and then we can dig in and find out what it is, but we don't know that. You throw one figure out of your hat Secretary WIRTZ. No, sir. Mr. CURTIS. Where does it come from? Secretary WIRTZ. I state flatly that there are 512 million families in this country today over 65 years of age, at least 52 million, who have incomes which are less than those which have been determined as necessary to live adequately. Percentages, averages, we will supply them, but we don't get away from the fact that there are 52 million who are in those straits and they did not come from my head. They came from the very careful study of the BLS. Mr. CURTIS. What I said came from your head, sir, had to do with whether they were in such a financial condition that they needed help. You pick out the figure you have, which is their income, and I have asked you what are their assets, and I don't know and can you supply what their assets are? Secretary WIRTZ. We will be glad to supply that. Secretary WIRTZ. I will supply whatever we can. (The following material was received by the committee:) According to the BLS survey of consumer expenditures in 1960, 58 percent of urban families (including one-person families) with head aged 65 or older were homeowners, compared to 52 percent of younger families. This survey provides some information on changes in assets and liabilities during the year but does not give any information on the level of asset holdings of families of different age. The 1960 survey of consumer finances of the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan showed that 87 percent of all spending units headed by |