Some people make things. Some people buy them. Because those things serve their needs. You know, Utility and all that. It’s how the economy works, at least according to the basic textbooks, which haven’t really changed much in over 130 years-unlike many other sciences. Which it is why it is so refreshing to consider the views if Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)[1] who took a different view of matters, without straying into the sterile wastes of Marxism.
In his seminal work The Theory of the Leisure Classes (1899) he lays out the view that many people buy things simply to signal status. [2] To give an example: the difference between not having a car, and having even a small cheap one is very great indeed. The difference between having a small cheap car and Rolls Royce is very slight in terms of what you can do with it. But the difference in status is colossal. And so enormous quantities of human effort, and many long hours, are poured into competition for goods of high cost but dubious value. To the immense cost of the environment. To those who say “ah but the work was penned in 1899” we say: look through the pages of HTSI in the Financial Times every week. Or stand on the shores at Antibes and gaze upon the baroque display of yachts bobbing on the blue waters.
We have our criticisms of Veblen of course. A 1964 Rolls Royce was experimenting with features such as electric windows and automatic gears which only later became standard for us mere mortals. Only the very rich can take the risk in pioneering new technologies like these, because they can take the hit from the inevitable failures in new R & D. This year’s luxury is next year’s utility, and The Rich have some uses after all. But Veblen was aware of this process. And it does not distract from his central observation that much of what we produce is wasteful frippery. And so Veblen’s insight still has value as a bridge to the future. If we cut our lifestyles a little to save the planet, maybe we haven’t lost so much after all.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class
#veblen #conspicuous consumption #conspicuous leisure # #leisure class #economics #utility #waste
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