The man of the household also can do something in this direction, and indeed, he commonly does; but with a still lower descent into the levels of indigence--along the margin of the slums--the man, and presently also the children, virtually cease to consume valuable goods for appearances, and the woman remains virtually the sole exponent of the household's pecuniary decency.

No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.

The last items of this category of consumption are not given up except under stress of the direst necessity.

Very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket or the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away.

There is no class and no country that has yielded so abjectly before the pressure of physical want as to deny themselves all gratification of this higher or spiritual need.
From the foregoing survey of the growth of conspicuous leisure and consumption, it appears that the utility of both alike for the purposes of reputability lies in the element of waste that is common to both.
In the one case it is a waste of time and effort, in the other it is a waste of goods.