ACS 400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Leisure, Conspicuous Consumption
9 Dec 2021
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Document Summary
American social scientist, 1857-1929 born to swedish immigrant parents who established a family farm economist and sociologist, worked at several american universities a non-marxist progressive who attacked production for profit. Political view was progressive but not radical. Criticized the profit motive; morally harmful when taken too far. Most famous work: the theory of the leisure class (1899) Influential to this day; even though the class he wrote about does not have the same social prominence it once had. Veblen argues that, for the leisure class, consumption functions as a means of displaying wealth and thereby achieving honour. People that have enough wealth who do not work for a living. Occupying a conspicuous and prominent place in society. What do people do with their wealth when they have more than they need, not just for comfortability but how do they use it. Argues that they use consumption as a way of achieving honour.
