The Theory of the Leisure Class

Thorstein Veblen offers a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism. He argues these are social activities derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labor—the social institutions of the feudal period that have continued to the modern era.


Veblen discusses how:


• The pursuit and the possession of wealth affects human behavior.

• The contemporary lords of the manor, the businessmen who own the means of production, have employed themselves in the economically unproductive practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.

• These are useless activities that contribute neither to the economy nor to the material production of the useful goods and services required for the functioning of society.

• It is the middle class and working class who are usefully employed in the industrialized, productive occupations that support the whole of society.


Conducted in the late-19th Century, Veblen’s socioeconomic analyses of the business cycles and the consequent price politics of the U.S. economy, and the emergent division of labor, by technocratic speciality proved to be accurate sociological predictions of the economic structure of an industrial society.


“Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class is the most searching critique of nineteenth-century America in the heyday of ostentatious wealth amidst poverty. Veblen points out that angels wear white robes to make it clear they do not belong to the blue-collar classes. He also has a penetrating wit: the dog is man’s favorite pet because it is the animal most slavish in its disposition and nastiest in its habits.” — Professor James Flynn