page_title: The Theory of the Leisure Class
section_title: Thematic overview
hierarchical_section_title: The Theory of the Leisure Class / Thematic overview
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das jüngere Mathildenkreuz der Äbtissin Mathilda aus dem Essener Domschatz English: The second "Mathilda Cross" given by Mathilda, Abbess of Essen from 973 to her death in 1011, now in the Treasury of Essen Minster (with other items given by Mathilde). She is shown with the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque at the base of the front. The cross was probably made in Cologne or Essen in the years before her death. Mathilda or Mathilde was a member of the Ottonian imperial family, the grand-daughter of Otto the Great and sister of Otto, Duke of Bavaria and Swabia (d 982). The corpus (body) is a replacement from later in the century. The cross re-uses classical engraved gems and cameos. Enamel roundels at the ends of the arms show Sol and Luna (personifications of the Sun and Moon). The back is a plain gold plate engraved with an Agnus Dei in the centre and the Envangelists' symbols at the ends of the members, all in roundels amid decoration of dots and foliage motifs. See: Lasko, Peter, Ars Sacra, 800-1200, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), p. 101 &amp; 103, 1972 (nb, 1st edn.) ISBN14056036X
context_page_description: The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise on economics and a detailed, social critique of conspicuous consumption, as a function of social class and of consumerism, derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labour, which are social institutions of the feudal period that have continued to the modern era.
  Veblen asserts that 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, which 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, while it is the middle class and the working class who are usefully employed in the industrialised, productive occupations that support the whole of society.
context_section_description: Socially-conspicuous economic behaviours
  In the late 19th century, with The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions (1899), Thorstein Veblen introduced, described, and explained the concepts of “conspicuous consumption” and of “conspicuous leisure” to the nascent, academic discipline of sociology. Conspicuous consumption is the application of money and material resources towards the display of a higher social-status (e.g. silver flatware, custom-made clothes, an over-sized house); and conspicuous leisure is the application of extended time to the pursuit of pleasure (physical and intellectual), such as sport and the fine arts. Therefore, such physical and intellectual pursuits display the freedom of the rich man and woman from having to work in an economically productive occupation.
  Moreover, from the conspicuous consumption of necessary, useful goods (food, shelter, clothing, etc.) that satisfied the requirements of physical survival, there emerged the conspicuous consumption of "Veblen goods", which, as defined by the pecuniary canons of taste of the leisure class, are consumer goods valued for being expensive to make, sell, and buy; ownership of Veblen goods communicates a superior socio-economic status, either of class or of stratum, or both.
  In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.
  — Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1934 ed.), p. 36.
  The theses of The Theory of the Leisure Class across its fourteen chapters
  Chapter I: Introductory
  The modern industrial society developed from the barbarian tribal society, which featured a leisure class supported by subordinated working classes employed in economically productive occupations. The leisure class is composed of people exempted from manual work and from practicing economically productive occupations, because they belong to the leisure class.
  Chapter II: Pecuniary Emulation
  “The emergence of a leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership” initially based upon marriage as a form of ownership – of women and their property – as evidence of prowess. As such, the material consumption of the leisure class has little to do with either comfort or subsistence, and much to do with social esteem from the community, and thus with self-respect.
  Chapter III: Conspicuous Leisure
  Among the lower social-classes, a man’s reputation as a diligent, efficient, and productive worker is the highest form of pecuniary emulation of the leisure class available to him in society. Yet, among the social strata of the leisure class, manual labour is perceived as a sign of social and economic weakness; thus, the defining, social characteristics of the leisure class are the “exemption from useful employment” and the practice of conspicuous leisure as a “non-productive consumption of time”.
  Chapter IV: Conspicuous Consumption
  Theoretically, the consumption of luxury products (goods and services) is limited to the leisure class, because the working classes have other, more important, things and activities on which to spend their limited income, their wages. Yet, such is not the case, because the lower classes consume expensive alcoholic beverages and narcotic drugs. In doing so, the working classes seek to emulate the standards of life and play of the leisure class, because they are the people "at the head of the social structure in point of reputability". In that emulation of the leisure class, social manners are a result of the non-productive, consumption of time by the upper social classes; thus the social utility of conspicuous consumption and of conspicuous leisure lies in their wastefulness of time and resources.
  Chapter V: The Pecuniary Standard of Living
  In a society of industrialised production (of goods and services), the habitual consumption of products establishes a person's standard of living; therefore, it is more difficult to do without products than it is to continually add produ
caption: The pecuniary canons of taste of the leisure class ascribe monetary and æsthetic value to an objet d'art, such as The Cross of Mathilde (ca. AD 1000), which realises conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption in one object.
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