The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social cla
Title page of the first edition
In a stratified society, the profession of arms (military officer) is a leisure-class occupation.
Manufacturing is an economically productive occupation for skilled-labor worker in a stratified society. (Un patron, by Jean-Eugène Buland, 1888)
Conspicuous leisure: The devout observance of religious ritual is an activity for the leisure-class woman. (L'offrande, by Jean-Eugène Buland, 1885)
Conspicuous consumption
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In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical
The Theory of the Leisure Class
…Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism, which are social activities derived from the social stratification of people and the division of…
The sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen coined the term "conspicuous consumption", and was a pioneer of the institutional economics movement.
In the 19th century, the philosopher John Stuart Mill recommended taxing the practice of conspicuous consumption.