Thorstein Veblen's 'The Theory Of The Leisure Class'

Written in 1899, by Thorstein Veblen, “The Theory of the Leisure Class”, analyzes and critiques consumerism in the United States. Veblen explores the lifestyle and ways of thinking of the exploiter versus the exploited; in a point of view from those who are born into power and those who serve people in power. It is in this book where Veblen created the phrase “conspicuous consumption”, where it means buying goods in order to display a higher social class than others (Heath, 2001). He traces almost all practices and tastes of the leisure class directly to the pecuniary interest. I chose this book because I wanted to learn about how certain groups in society try to distinguish themselves from other groups and how it came to be for such differential.

Veblen argues that technology and the industrial arts serve as motors of economic production but that people purposely waste them based on their self-interest. He also argues that the living style of those individuals who carelessly spend money on luxury goods are imitated by those in lower classes doing more harm to those in lower classes, rather than those in the leisure class because they sacrifice their own resources just to achieve a “better” look from society. His argumentation also extends from suggesting economists to look how people change throughout history to saying how technological advances requires adaptation from people in order for them to achieve a better social status and the collection of

Veblen points out that education is a form of the upper class as it does not necessarily deal with the contribution to the economy compared to practical skills of someone working in manual labor which directly deals with the economy. He stated that elegant diction, whether in writing or speaking, is an effective means of reputability (1899, 258) which indicates that the way people write or talk can indicate their belonging in a social status. I believe Veblen decided to place education at last because he wants his audience to see that education is the ultimate stage in order to pursue a position within the leisure