| Popis: |
The economics of consumption as a field for research in agricultural economics is concerned with two things, the people of agriculture, and the products of agriculture. One group of studies deals with the nature of the consumption of the agricultural class; the other group of studies deals with the use of agricultural products. The general objective of the first group is an improvement in the efficiency of consumption of those engaged in agriculture. The general objective of the second group is to aid agriculture in adjusting its production program, and to enable the farmer to sell his products more effectively. The problem of increasing the efficiency of consumption of the agricultural group is a problem to be attacked jointly by the several groups working with problems relating to the agricultural people, each developing the phases lying within the subject matter of the respective fields. Close cooperation between the agricultural economists, the homeeconomics group, and the rural sociologists is needed. One of these groups working alone is sure to overlook important elements in the problem. Certain aspects of the problem are, for example, clearly economic in their nature, principally those aspects which relate to costs and to the relative importance of costs in what constitutes efficient consumption. These concepts have been handled loosely in a number of rural-living studies. Sometimes the term "cost-of-living" has been applied to the expense of a certain "necessary" budget, sometimes to the value of goods actually consumed in a given case, and, at times, in both senses in the same study. Again the "cost-of-living," in the sense of goods actually consumed, has been taken to mean both the efficiency of consumption and the plane of living. A low "cost-of-living" may reflect efficient household manage |
