The Theory of The Leisure Class - Implications For Society

Implications For Society

As a sociologist Thorstein Veblen outlined some consequences of a tribalistic social order that underpins contemporary consumer society:

• The subjugation of women — Because women once were war booty won by raiding barbarians, in contemporary society, the housewife is the trophy who attests to a man’s socio-economic success. In disallowing his wife to have a discrete, independent socio-economic life — such as a profession, a trade, a job — a man can display her unemployed status as a form of his conspicuous leisure and as an object of his conspicuous consumption.
• The popularity of sport — In the case of American football, although its practice could be socially advantageous to the psychological cohesion of the community, it is an economic side-effect, because it is a display of conspicuous leisure.
• Supernatural worship — Religion is a tribal expression of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption, of social, but not economic, consequence. Hence, a church building is an economic waste of land and resources, whilst the clergy are people employed in unproductive “work”.
• Social formalities — Contemporary manners and etiquette are remnant formal practices of the social strata of barbarian society, of little practical, economic value, but much cultural value in identifying, establishing, and enforcing distinctions of place within a social stratum; a place for everyone, and everyone in his and her place.

In his introduction to the 1973 edition of Theory of the Leisure Class, J.K. Galbraith identified Thorstein Veblen as a man of his time, who reflected his Weltanschauung in his person and in his personality: his house often was unkempt; his grooming neglected, and his clothes disheveled; he was an agnostic in an anti-intellectual and superstitious society; and he tended to curtness in dealing with people less intelligent than himself.