COMPASSIONATE CONSUMERISM.

Pater Familias is administering the cane to one of his workmen. The man has been caught in an adulterous relationship, and Familias, although scrupulously fair, can be exceedingly firm with it.
Pater Familias’ workers all live in a village he had built for them. The buildings are small and homely, built of hewn stone and roofed in Welsh slate. ‘Built on the human scale’ as he likes to say, and arranged around the village green, where fetes are held on public holidays, such as Pater’s Birthday, and where the erring worker is now being caned.
‘And now the woman’ Pater brandishes the cane as the woman lifts her dress and bends over the caning block, presenting her pale derriere to Pater’s correctional cane. Punishment is administered equally, to both man and woman, as Pater holds the most enlightened ideals. 30 strokes across the backside.
‘I assure you, I don’t enjoy this my dear, I do it because it is my duty. I use the cane solely for your moral health and the moral health of our community’ THWACK!
The workhouses are light and airy and conditions are humane. Breaks of a generous length are given at set times without fail. Hours are comparatively short. (10 hrs per day) Work starts at 7am. Wakeup is at 6am. Bedtime is at 10pm. Pay is below industry standards but board and lodgings are included and are of a higher standard than the workers could hope to provide for themselves. The food is planned to give health and strength and good digestion. Breakfast for instance is muesli or porridge, and fruit. The workers are never given anything disadvantageous to their health. There is no alcohol (in fact workers are permitted a glass of port on Pater’s Birthday), no smoking and no absolutely no drugs. There are times allotted for exercise and for education and reflection. Houses are to be kept clean. There are regular inspections. Every house is provided with a copy of “The Aphorisms of Peter Familias” and a portrait of the man himself, which hangs above the fireplace. There are no forms of electronic entertainment. There are books and there are lectures and there is music all for the edification and entertainment of the workers.
All workers must wear the uniform. The uniform for men is a cloth cap, green, a green blazer with the Pater Familas family crest emblazoned on it, a white shirt and a striped tie. Shorts of navy blue and green socks pulled up to just below the knee. Black leather shoes must be worn. Women wear straw boaters with pink ribbon. Green pinafores also with the crest over white blouses and white socks pulled up to the knee. They also wear shoes of black leather.