 THE selection of concrete goods and services on the market is the third step in the process of expenditure, or of turning money income into real income. The antecedent steps of "choice-making" and "income-apportionment" have been discussed in two preceding chapters. This view of expenditure as a three-fold process is desirable in that it differentiates the three groups of problems involved. In many discussions "buying" or "market-selection" is made to cover all three steps in expenditure, and in others "budgeting" is made an all-inclusive term.  The problems of buying should be differentiated from the more fundamental ones involved in "choice-making" or "standard-setting." Miss Hoyt calls market-selection "the technology of consumption." Here, she says, we do not "attempt to pass judgment on the character of our wants" but are concerned with "how we can most economically gratify them." A certain standard of living is taken for granted. It necessitates, let us say, the purchase of a fur coat, and income is allotted to this purpose in the budget. But the problems of actual market selection remain. Where are fur coats to be found? Shall the coat be purchased in August or November? Among those offered which kind shall be chosen? How can this kind be identified and the merits of two or more of this kind compared? Here is a set of problems of which the consumer is highly conscious. Shopping and marketing are the new tasks which have to a degree displaced the older household arts and crafts; they are important activities in present-day household production, and under the usual system of division of labor are largely in the hands of home-keeping women. Just as budgeting is tied up with the character of money income and the fact of its limitation so the activities and problems of market selection are a consequence of the present-day system of specialization and exchange.
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