Veblenian Nightmare

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appeared early in human history, and that the division of labor was soon associated with categories of social status – seems confirmed by modern anthropology. Veblen believes that economic competition for subsistence has been over-emphasized. He feels that ownership of property began with the practice of seizing women from alien tribes, and that the key motive in the development of ownership as an institution was the desire for status and honor, for a distinction that would allow the individual to “look down” on his fellows. “Ownership began and grew into a human institution on grounds unrelated to the subsistence minimum. The dominant incentive was from the outset the invidious distinction attaching to wealth...”
Veblen goes on to describe in great detail how the association of leisure and property with status developed into cultural forms and institutions of his time. The association of status and leisure led to “taboos” against manual labor on the part of the ...

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than a similarly high gloss on a threadbare sleeve; and yet...all well-bred people...instinctively and unaffectedly cleave to the one as phenomenon of great beauty, and eschew the other as offensive...

Veblen’s observations of society included the fact that the lower classes seemed to imitate the upper classes more often than they resented them. Veblen shows how the middle classes come to adopt the same standards of taste as the rich, and how the tastes and values of “gentlemen” are very often the same as the men of the lowest classes. The workers tend to agree that manual labor is less dignified than leisure, the goal being to escape from the lower class.
It is easy to see many ...

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