The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions

“But the rule holds with but slight exceptions that, whether warriors or priests, the upper classes are exempt from industrial employments, and this exemption is the economic expression of their superior rank.” 

This passage explains the fundamental factors that lead Veblen to develop his economic theory of conspicuous consumption. The wealthy classes, who do not need to engage in productive work, use leisure as a symbol to distinguish themselves from the lower classes.

“Virtually the whole range of industrial employments is an outgrowth of what is classed as woman’s work in the primitive barbarian community.”

Veblen points out on multiple occasions that women have been traditionally subjugated in patriarchal systems. In “barbarian” communities, they perform menial tasks that their male counterparts disdain. Thus, their traditional role as producers in an inferior position parallels the modern worker’s position.

“In the sequence of cultural evolution, the emergence of a leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership.”

As humans adapted to their environment and subsistence no longer became a problem, individuals began to develop a sense of property rights, which pitted them against each other for the ownership of resources. This is what ultimately fueled the development of social hierarchies and culminated in the emergence of the leisure class.