CHAPTER II.
THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING.
It is not what we lack, but what we see others have, that makes us discontented.
There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preeminence by the size and magnificence of the family abode.

Mediaeval castles, Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste.

This was largely shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments.
The so-called patronage of the arts--furnishings, fabrics, pictures, statues, valued to this day--came under the same head of rivalry in expenditure.
In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far beyond the needs of the immediate family.

But, unlike society in the middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line.
In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills.
There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads and hands are thrust up through from below at every point.

Democracy has taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides.
At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable form of conspicuous waste.