page_title: The Theory of the Leisure Class
section_title: Thesis
hierarchical_section_title: The Theory of the Leisure Class / Thesis
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: The stratified society
  In the late 19th century, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions (1899) established that the economic life of a modern society is based upon the social stratification of tribal and feudal societies, rather than upon merit, that is to say, upon social and economic utility. Thorstein Veblen's anthropological examples indicate that many economic behaviours of contemporary society derive from corresponding tribal-society behaviors, wherein men and women practiced the division of labour according to their status group; high-status people practiced hunting and warfare, which are economically unproductive occupations, whilst low-status people practiced farming and manufacturing, which are economically productive occupations.
  (i) Occupation
  In a stratified society, the division of labour inherent to the barbarian culture of conquest, domination, and exploitation featured labour-intensive occupations for the conquered people, and light-labour occupations for the conquerors, who thus became the leisure class. Moreover, it was socially unimportant that low-status, productive occupations (tinker, tailor, chandler) were of greater economic value to society than were high-status, unproductive occupations (the profession of arms, the clergy, banking, etc.); nonetheless, for the sake of social cohesion, the leisure class occasionally performed productive work that contributed to the functioning of society, yet, such work was more symbolic participation in the economy, than it was practical economic production.
  (ii) Economic utility
  In exercising political control, the leisure class retained their high social-status by direct and indirect coercion, by reserving for themselves the profession of arms, and so withheld weapons and military skills from the lower social classes. Such a division of labour (economic utility) rendered the lower classes dependent upon the leisure class, and so established, justified, and perpetuated the role of the leisure class as the defenders of society against natural and supernatural enemies, because the clergy also belonged to the leisure class.
  In the event, contemporary society did not psychologically supersede the tribal-stage division of labour, but merely evolved different forms of said division-of-labour-by-status. During the Mediæval period (5th c. – 15th c.) only land-owning noblemen had the right to hunt and to bear arms as soldiers; status and income were parallel. Likewise, in contemporary society, skilled labourers of the working class usually are paid an income, in wages, that is inferior to the income paid, in salary, to the educated professionals whose economic importance (as engineers, managers, salesmen, personnel clerks, et al.) is indirectly productive for the whole of society; income and status are parallel.
  (iii) Pecuniary emulation
  To attain, retain, and gain greater social status within their social class, low-status people emulate the respected, high-status members of their socio-economic class, by consuming over-priced brands of goods and services perceived to be products of better quality, and thus of a higher social-class. In striving for greater social status, people buy high-status products (goods and services) which they cannot afford, despite the availability of affordable products that are perceived as of lower quality and lesser social-prestige, and thus of a lower social-class. In a consumer society, the businessman was the latest member of the leisure class, a barbarian who used his prowess (business acumen) and competitive skills (marketing) to increase profits, by manipulating the supply and the demand among the social classes and their strata, for the same products at different prices.
  Contemporary practices of barbarian-tribe consumerism
  The subjugation of women: Because women were spoils of war captured by raiding barbarians, in contemporary society, the unemployed housewife is an economic trophy that attests to a man's socio-economic prowess. In having a wife without an independent economic life (a pr
caption: Manufacturing is an economically productive occupation for skilled-labour worker in a stratified society. (Un patron, by Jean-Eugène Buland.)
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