The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

First published: 1899

Type of work: Social criticism and economics

The Work:

The Theory of the Leisure Class is Thorstein Veblen’s first and best-known book. In all his writings, he offers an approach to social commentary that tends to invert much of the conventional economic wisdom of his day. On the surface, his style of writing is flat and unemotional, and often pedantic. However, the cumulative effect results in powerful social criticism. He often casts his writings (certainly The Theory of the Leisure Class) in the mode of anthropological commentaries, drawing on illustrations from many times and places beyond his own (but without explicit source references). He also stresses the evolutionary character of social institutions, in a somewhat Darwinian mode.

Veblen does not directly identify the leisure class with the rich, but the overlap is substantial. Where class distinctions have been strongly observed, he argues, the upper classes do not engage in “industrial occupations”—the most basic types of useful work. Instead, their occupations—which include government employ, warfare, religion, and sports—are considered highly honorable. The most honorable activities tend to involve what Veblen calls exploit—physical prowess, as in hunting or warfare or sports, or exercising authority over others, as in civic leadership. Traditionally, these honorable activities have been associated with men. Contrasting activities—drudgery—tend to be associated with women.

Conventional economics regards consumption as the goal of productive effort, particularly in accumulating wealth. For most people, though, the goal is to achieve “the invidious distinction attaching to wealth.” Each person is in competition with others. Although one individual may gain self-esteem by rising on the social scale, it is not possible for everyone to do so simultaneously. To rise socially requires not merely possessing wealth and power but also making this condition known to the others by displaying it. Here, leisure enters the analysis. Engagement in productive labor marks a person as less wealthy, thus less worthy.

The leisure that serves as a marker in social competition does not connote idleness, merely the lack of productivity. Appropriate leisure activities include an exaggerated attention to styles of clothing, furniture, food, and social events. Veblen’s scorn for practitioners of social snobbery rises close to the surface in these passages.

Interwoven through the text are Veblen’s many observations about the status of women. He notes that marriage can involve “ownership” by the man, and “conspicuous leisure,” a term Veblen coined, is often demonstrated by the role and activities of the wife. Beyond the wife’s role is a hierarchical range of domestic servants. Needless to say, for the wife to have a productive job outside the home would contradict a family’s efforts to project a leisure-class existence. In Veblen’s time, the prejudice against women’s employment extended far down the socioeconomic scale, including much of “keeping house,” which was considered unproductive, even by Veblen. Also, his exposition lacks perspective on child raising.

At this point in the book, Veblen introduces his most celebrated concept: conspicuous consumption (he also coined the phrase). A large part of consumption reflects the social goal of impressing others, particularly with one’s wealth, power, and superiority. Economist Robert Frank has elaborated on this with abundant descriptive detail. He refers to “positional goods”—the luxury car, the “McMansion”—which have become particularly eligible markers in competition for social status and for self-regard. Lavish spending on such items, financed by borrowing, played a major role in creating the economic depression that began in 2007.

Veblen also believes, in seeming contrast to the competitive drive for status, that people have an “instinct of workmanship”—that is, a wish for effective work, serviceability, and efficiency—as well as a distaste for waste, futility, and ineptitude. Because of this “instinct,” people are impelled to activity. The leisure class may indulge in much busy work, perhaps involving ceremonial social activities and organizations, but these efforts do not serve human life or human well-being on the whole.

Veblen constantly stressed the importance of peer pressure on consumption decisions. Often people have internalized the customs and conventions that dictate choices concerning what one should eat, wear, or drive. Once these standards have been internalized, maintaining them becomes a matter of self-regard, perhaps as much as conscious rivalry. The wealthy leisure class plays the role of tastemakers, helping to shape the social and cultural standards to which others aspire.

In Veblen’s view, the propensity for emulation is one of the most powerful economic motives, and the varieties of conspicuous waste he identifies absorb a large part of the products of economic growth. To keep up appearances, most people spend almost all of their income. The pressure on their income shows up in the low birthrate of the leisure class. Since Veblen’s time, too, expenditure of money and effort on children’s schooling, talents, and skills has become a huge outlet for positional rivalry. One consequence of this rivalry is the corruption of extracurricular activities, in which parents compel their children to try to become “stars,” resulting in a lack of enrichment for “ordinary” children.

In Veblen’s view, houses of worship often embody the goal of conspicuous waste. He cites as examples of this waste the often grand, ornate, and expensive trappings of religion and the wasteful physical “emptiness” of places of worship, which are often used only a few hours a week. He marks the priestly class, too, for conspicuous waste for its relative exemption from doing laborious work.

For consumers, the perception of what is beautiful may be strongly influenced by what is expensive. The appeal of a custom-tailored wedding dress or ball gown may lie as much in the cost and exclusivity as in the design. Consumers believe that a product carrying a higher price must be of superior quality. To Veblen, clothing styles are chosen to display their relative high costs and to signal that the wearer does not or cannot engage in productive physical activity—for example, high heels and wasp waists certainly limit one’s physical activity. A measure of the rights of women since Veblen’s time has been their greater freedom to dress comfortably.

Midway through The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen offers more, and comprehensive, observations about the leisure class and economic life. One clear characteristic is that the leisure class tends to be conservative in politics and lifestyle. In particular, it stands against institutional changes that might benefit those outside the class at the expense of the leisure class. Another observation concerns economic life, which Veblen divides into two categories: one related to business (bad) and the other to industry (good). Later commentators would differentiate between making money (business) and making goods (industry). To Veblen, the upper classes are parasites, associated with business rather than industry. This caricature, however, ignores the productive functions of entrepreneurship and finance. By implication, Veblen envisions the obsolescence of the innovative, risk-taking entrepreneur in the wake of the emergence of giant corporations.

Veblen was writing at a time when wealthy entrepreneurs such as J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller were under fire from muckrakers such as Ida M. Tarbell and Henry Demarest Lloyd. Veblen’s own remarks are more restrained; he names no names, whether of persons or businesses. Instead, he suggests that economic evolution has favored personality types geared to unscrupulous competition and struggle, to the detriment of “sympathy, honesty, and regard for life.” In Veblen’s opinion, the favored personality traits are not those conducive to economic efficiency and productivity. In the hierarchy of occupations, the highest esteem is attached to ownership, finance, banking, and law. Veblen casually remarks that “there is no hereditary leisure class of any consequence in the American community, except in the South.” This statement is clearly false. The prototypes of the American leisure class were the Vanderbilts and the Astors, inheritors of wealth from vigorous and creative entrepreneurs. Inherited wealth, especially landed property, figures in most discussions of social class in the United States.

Indeed, Veblen’s characterization of the leisure class in and of itself is of little scholarly value. One would never know that, in the same decade The Theory of the Leisure Class was published, the United States was witnessing the miraculous age of electricity, which was spreading from the Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the electrification of the American household. Veblen’s characterization of the business world lacks any sense of the dramatic increase in productivity, the upgrading of jobs, or the successful annual absorption of millions of immigrants.

The lasting contribution of The Theory of the Leisure Class lies in its examination of the dimensions of conspicuous consumption. The American leisure class of the twenty-first century consists mainly of retirees who compete with each other not so much in conspicuous consumption but in showing off their physical and mental vigor. The extremes of conspicuous consumption are found in working-age families whose “McMansions,” lavish weddings, and expensive college educations have many of the negative dimensions cited by Veblen. However, these extremes now are associated with overwork, not leisure.

Bibliography

Adil, Mouhammed H. An Introduction to Thorstein Veblen’s Economic Theory. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. Examines Veblen’s theories of business cycles and growth, and his other ideas about economics.

Dorfman, Joseph. Thorstein Veblen and His America. 1934. 7th ed. Clifton, N.J.: A. M. Kelley, 1972. The definitive study of Veblen’s life and work by an economist-historian. Includes a valuable discussion of the historical context of Veblen’s writing. Also includes corrections and updated appendixes.

Edgell, Stephen. Veblen In Perspective: His Life and Thought. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. Focuses on Veblen’s ideas about marginality, ethnicity, the culture of the leisure class, and other subjects. A good place to start.

Harris, Abram L. “Veblen and the Social Phenomenon of Capitalism.” American Economic Review 61, no. 2 (May, 1951). A succinct critique of Veblen’s naive remarks on anthropology and his neglect of the contributions of business toward achieving high productivity. A dated but still helpful article.

Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. 7th ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. In this justly popular history of economic thought, chapter 8, “The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen,” gives high praise to its subject.

Lerner, Max, ed. The Portable Veblen. 1948. Reprint. New York: Viking Press, 1968. This classic collection includes a variety of Veblen’s writings and an enthusiastic review of his ideas by the editor, Max Lerner. This comprehensive introduction is considered one of the most perceptive analyses of Veblen in print.

Reisman, David. Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Interpretation. 1953. Reprint. New York: Seabury Press, 1975. Sociologist Reisman, who was much influenced by Veblen’s emphasis on peer pressure and “other-directedness,” elaborates on these and other issues in this critical study of Veblen’s work.

Spindler, Michael. Veblen and Modern America: Revolution Iconoclast. Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press, 2002. Describes Veblen’s major ideas and examines his influence as an economist, a sociologist, and an analyst and critic of modern American culture.