From ‘The Possibilities of Thrift’, The Spectator, 10 April 1915:
IT has, perhaps, not yet been sufficiently realized that the country is passing through what may almost be called an economic revolution. Large numbers of the working classes who, let it be frankly admitted, were often underpaid are now in receipt of incomes which, in comparison with their previous earnings, must almost be described as princely. The husband, who by the nature of the case in a working-class family is the greatest consumer, has gone to the front, and the wife finds herself in possession of a larger income than before, while she is relieved of the principal burden upon her housekeeping money. This is how the problem presents itself to the large number of families in the labouring class where the breadwinner has enlisted. In addition, there is also a very considerable number of families where the bread-winner has remained at home but is earning much higher wages than before.
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