Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Bunde Veblenwas an American economist and sociologist. He was famous as a witty critic of capitalism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth30 July 1857
CityCato, WI
CountryUnited States of America
horse politics socialism
Socialism is a dead horse.
wealth social mark
Abstention from labor is the conventional evidence of wealth and is therefore the conventional mark of social standing.
believe editors firsts
The first duty of an editor is to gauge the sentiment of his reader, and then to tell them what they like to believe...
patriotism politics spirit
Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and distress.
would-be business-trips ifs
No one travelling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive.
elements becoming ends
It frequently happens that an element of the standard of living which set out with being primarily wasteful, ends with becoming, in the apprehension of the consumer, a necessary of life.
patents may requirements
While the proximate ground of discrimination may be of another kind, still the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time.
hands walking-sticks effort
The walking stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer's hands are employed otherwise than in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure.
use pay masters
The chief use of servants is the evidence they afford of the master's ability to pay.
men effort agents
As a matter of selective necessity, man is an agent. He is, in his own apprehension, a centre of unfolding impulsive activity-'teleological activity.' He is an agent seeking in every act the accomplishment of some concrete, objective, impersonal end. By force of being such an agent, he is possessed of a taste for effective work, and a distaste for futile effort.
running self-esteem character
Only individuals with an aberrant temperament can in the long run retain their self-esteem in the face of the disesteem of their fellows.
dog play mastery
The dog commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery
mother favourite invention
Invention is the mother of necessity.
idols gentleman quality
The quasi-peaceable gentleman of leisure, then, not only consumes of the staff of life beyond the minimum required for subsistence and physical efficiency, but his consumption also undergoes a specialisation as regards the quality of the goods consumed. He consumes freely and of the best, in food, drink, narcotics, shelter, services, ornaments, apparel, weapons and accoutrements, amusements, amulets, and idols or divinities.