The Theory of the Leisure Class: Why We Are Never Satisfied

Thorstein Veblen was an American economist, the son of Norwegian farmers, who looked at the rich of his day like a scientist studying a strange tribe.In 1899 he published The Theory of the Leisure Class, a book about why people want wealth at all.His answer was not comfort or food, but respect.

“In early times, people won honour by their strength in hunting and war.In settled societies, property took the place of the hunter’s trophies, and owning wealth became the easiest proof of success.It became necessary to own property just to keep one’s good name.Those who fall below the usual standard of wealth lose the respect of their neighbours, and so they lose their own self-respect as well.

Each of us wants to own as much as the people we compare ourselves with, and it is very pleasant to own a little more.But as soon as we get used to a new level of wealth, it no longer satisfies us any more than the old one did.While we are behind, we live in chronic dissatisfaction; once we catch up, we strain to get further ahead.

Since the real goal is to rank higher than everyone else, the desire for wealth can never be fully satisfied.No general increase in a society’s wealth, however fairly it is shared, can end this race.”Veblen called this habit of measuring ourselves against others with money ‘pecuniary emulation’.