Book Description

The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study of Institutions. Thorstein Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, is an economic treatise and detailed social critique of conspicuous consumption, as a function of social-class consumerism. It proposes that the social strata and the division of labor of the feudal period continued into the modern era. The lords of the manor employed themselves in the economically useless practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure, while the middle and lower classes were employed in the industrial occupations that support the whole of society. Economically wasteful activities are those activities that do not contribute to the economy or to the material productivity required for the fruitful functioning of society. Veblen's analyses of business cycles and prices, and of the emergent technocratic division of labor by speciality (scientists, engineers, technologists) at the end of the 19th century proved to be accurate predictions of the nature of an industrial society. The Theory of the Leisure Class was based on a trio of articles published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1898, and contained most of the major themes Veblen would develop in his later works. Veblen's theories were based on and relevant to contemporary issues in the U.S., but were conceived at the starting point of American social sciences. He was influenced by writers such as Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer. His most important inspiration, however, seems to have been Karl Marx, in that Veblen argues for a materialist perspective on the formation of society, saying that the latter is shaped by its citizens' ways of procuring a livelihood. Unlike Marx, on the other hand, Veblen did not see labor, but technology and industrial arts, as the creative forces in society. His interest in production as not just a means of serving society's needs, but also a way of making a profit for the owner class, was shared by classical theorists of his day.