In the communities of the Western culture, this point is at present found among the lower middle class.
And here occurs a curious inversion.

It is a fact of common observance that in this lower middle class there is no pretense of leisure on the part of the head of the household.

Through force of circumstances it has fallen into disuse.

But the middle-class wife still carries on the business of vicarious leisure, for the good name of the household and its master.

In descending the social scale in any modern industrial community, the primary fact-the conspicuous leisure of the master of the household-disappears at a relatively high point.