Conspicuous Consumption and Leisure
In The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), Veblen presented the concepts of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. Conspicuous consumption is the application of money, and other resources, to display a higher social-status, e.g. the use of silver flatware at meals, although flatware made of other materials might functionally suffice. Moreover, Veblen goods are consumer goods made greatly desirable by high manufacturing cost, sale price, and scarcity in the market, especially “socially visible” consumer goods, rather than goods that are consumed in private.
Conspicuous leisure is the extended length of time that a person devotes to pleasurable pursuits that grant him or her a higher social-status; for example, to be a gentleman, a man must study philosophy and the fine arts, which were of limited economic value towards earning a living. Therefore, such intellectual activities displayed the rich person’s freedom from economic necessity, and from having to do a job or hold an occupation that requires performing economically productive manual labor; higher social status derives from not having to perform manual labor.
Read more about this topic: The Theory Of The Leisure Class
Famous quotes containing the words conspicuous consumption, conspicuous, consumption and/or leisure:
“Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.”
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
“The sense of humour has other things to do
than to make itself conspicuous in the act
of laughter.”
—Alice Meynell (1847–1922)
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)