The Veblen breaks down some very complex concepts that form the root of our capitalist society in a deft and thorough manner. By beginning to identify the root of class consciousness, class formation and cultural concepts of inherent value judgments accorded to labor, Veblen causes us to question our assumptions and values related to employment and economic structure. Every time Veblen articulates a point, I just felt like leaping in the air and saying “Of course!”, which isn’t something I’ve really felt (to the same extent) with other theorists we’ve studied. While the others have all presented views that are legitimate, well-researched and understandable, this one really resonated as truly accurate.

Where to begin? The fundamental separation of women’s work and men’s work and how that helps push us towards distinctions in class and employment? The absolutely delicious correlative drawn tracing the role of exploit in men’s work through the taking of trophies through the evolution of consumerism? The most academic dissection of the concept (and futility of) of keeping up with the Joneses ? WHY we have to keep up with the Joneses in the first place? The implications of manners and the deeper understanding of good breeding? Deconstructing the differences between practical labor and status-based vicarious leisure? The status-based perceptions of drunkenness (though doubtless a shift in perception of that in modern times would be expected.) It’s really awesome, isn’t it?

This is what presents the problem. I really enjoyed the entire reading and so am finding it really difficult to pick any single passage to focus on, but I’m going to try to apply some of Veblen’s more individually minded observations to a general societal problem.

The self-evident comparisons between Veblen’s cautionary observations and America’s modern credit crisis are overwhelming and not particularly interesting to comment on, except that we clearly haven’t learned anything in a century (a common theme of its own in this class). However, a few points that he makes point to a general societal problem that is only growing more pervasive. So I give you several quotations in a row and address them all together…
“Very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket or last pretence of pecuniary decency is put away. There is no class and no country that has yielded so abjectly before the pressure of physical want as to deny themselves all gratification of this higher or spiritual need.”

“The means of communication and the mobility of the population now expose the individual to the observation of many persons who have no other means of judging his reputability than the display of goods (and perhaps of breeding) which he is able to make while he is under their direct observation.”

“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, and it may in this way become as indispensible as any other item of the consumer’s habitual expenditure.”

So what do we do with all of these together? Well, the mass psychosis of modern over-consumption and debt can be found here. First, people will buy long after it ceases to be prudent or advisable, because the act of gratifying one’s wants is far more pleasurable than the process of responsible self-denial, particularly in a world that makes want gratification so easy!
What makes them want so many things? Part of it is the relentless inundation of marketing, but the other part of it is the constant exposure to other people’s gains. A century ago, who did we have to compare ourselves with? Family, neighbors, and public figures. Now, it’s everyone on the internet, so really, it’s everyone. For a culture already overly comfortable with relentless consumption comparison, potentially comparing yourself to everyone on the Internet is staggering and is exercising transformative impact over definitions of ‘good breeding’ and the display of goods.

In terms of breeding, there has been a bit of a reactionary revolt against standards we had held before. Language has deteriorated thanks to “lol-speak” and texting grammar. A basic decorum and reservation of manner has been replaced by relentless over-sharing and a celebration of gauche crudity (hello reality television) because people want to identify more with the people on their televisions, so instead of aspiring to greater successes, they drag their celebrities down to their level.
However, despite bringing the aspirational figures down to a more manageable level, society still covets and produces and consumes at an ever-increasing pace. Technology has reduced product cycles and attitudes towards innovative products have shifted from ‘evaluate carefully and then plan a purchase’ to ‘buy the latest, greatest amazing thing because it will TOTALLY CHANGE YOUR LIFE’.

Easy access to credit has made that possible in a way Veblen could have never anticipated. No longer do you even have to struggle to maintain an aura of conspicuous consumption, banks will enable you to have whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you pay for it for the rest of your life. People value goods less because they have to work less (on the front end) to receive them. Society as a whole does not fundamentally appreciate that at some point, things bought on credit must be paid for. As a result of this, while people continue to spend and spend to match up to their ‘peers’ and maintain their sense of self-worth, they are in fact destroying their own capacity for financial self-determination and potential for ascending the class ladder by indebting themselves beyond repair. If it weren’t so sad, it would be almost funny.