Thorstein Veblen
American economist and sociologist (1857 to 1929); author of The Theory of the Leisure Class.
Thorstein Veblen did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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Where people are habitually compared on efficiency, the instinct of workmanship turns into invidious comparison
Wherever the circumstances or traditions of life lead to an habitual comparison of one person with another in point of efficiency, the instinct of workmanship works out in an emulative or invidious comparison of persons.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1899This on korrents
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Where people are habitually compared on efficiency, the instinct of workmanship turns into invidious comparison
Wherever the circumstances or traditions of life lead to an habitual comparison of one person with another in point of efficiency, the instinct of workmanship works out in an emulative or invidious comparison of persons.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
A leisure class emerges at the same time as ownership, because both come from the same economic forces
In the sequence of cultural evolution the emergence of a leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership. This is necessarily the case, for these two institutions result from the same set of economic forces.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The motive at the root of ownership is emulation
The motive that lies at the root of ownership is emulation; and the same motive of emulation continues active in the further development of the institution to which it has given rise and in the development of all those features of the social structure which this institution of ownership touches.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
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The aim of accumulating wealth is to rank high in financial strength against the rest of the community
So far as concerns the present question, the end sought by accumulation is to rank high in comparison with the rest of the community in point of pecuniary strength.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Having wealth is not enough to earn esteem; it has to be displayed
In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Conspicuously consuming valuable goods is how a gentleman of leisure earns reputation
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Even the poorest people never give up all conspicuous consumption
No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
To bring reputation, spending has to be on superfluities and be wasteful
Throughout the entire evolution of conspicuous expenditure, whether of goods or of services or human life, runs the obvious implication that in order to effectually mend the consumer's good fame it must be an expenditure of superfluities. In order to be reputable it must be wasteful.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The spending standard people strive for is an ideal just beyond their reach, not the average
This suggests that the standard of expenditure which commonly guides our efforts is not the average, ordinary expenditure already achieved; it is an ideal of consumption that lies just beyond our reach, or to reach which requires some strain.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The need for conspicuous waste absorbs any rise in productivity once basic needs are met
The need of conspicuous waste, therefore, stands ready to absorb any increase in the community's industrial efficiency or output of goods, after the most elementary physical wants have been provided for.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Signs of expensiveness come to be perceived as beauty in the goods that carry them
The marks of expensiveness come to be accepted as beautiful features of the expensive articles.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Elegant dress signals both expense and that the wearer does not work
Elegant dress serves its purpose of elegance not only in that it is expensive, but also because it is the insignia of leisure.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The role of the leisure class in social evolution is to slow change and preserve the obsolete
The office of the leisure class in social evolution is to retard the movement and to conserve what is obsolescent.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The propertied class relates to the economy through acquisition and exploitation, not production
The relation of the leisure (that is, propertied non-industrial) class to the economic process is a pecuniary relation—a relation of acquisition, not of production; of exploitation, not of serviceability.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Success as a lawyer is taken as a sign of barbarian astuteness, since the work is predatory fraud
The lawyer is exclusively occupied with the details of predatory fraud, either in achieving or in checkmating chicanery, and success in the profession is therefore accepted as marking a large endowment of that barbarian astuteness which has always commanded men's respect and fear.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
A taste for sports perhaps reflects a boyish temperament and marks arrested moral development
It is perhaps truer, or at least more evident, as regards sports than as regards the other expressions of predatory emulation already spoken of, that the temperament which inclines men to them is essentially a boyish temperament. The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development of the man's moral nature.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
Belief in luck seriously affects the economic efficiency of a community where it is common
The belief in luck is a sense of fortuitous necessity in the sequence of phenomena. In its various mutations and expressions, it is of very serious importance for the economic efficiency of any community in which it prevails to an appreciable extent.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
In older European communities the hereditary leisure class and the poor are more devout than the industrious middle class
In the older communities of the European culture, the hereditary leisure class, together with the mass of the indigent population, are given to devout observances in an appreciably higher degree than the average of the industrious middle class, wherever a considerable class of the latter character exists.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The canons of pecuniary decency come down to waste, futility and ferocity
The canons of pecuniary decency are reducible for the present purpose to the principles of waste, futility, and ferocity.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
The classics hold their place in higher learning because they show wasted time and money
Indeed, there can be little doubt that it is their utility as evidence of wasted time and effort, and hence of the pecuniary strength necessary in order to afford this waste, that has secured to the classics their position of prerogative in the scheme of higher learning, and has led to their being esteemed the most honorific of all learning.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Said c. 1899
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