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)
Robber baron (industrialist)
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Robber baron is a term first applied by 19th century muckrakers and others as social criticism to certain wealthy, powerful, and unethical 19th-century American businessmen. The term appeared in that
The Theory of the Leisure Class
…occupations that support the whole of society. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) was published during the Gilded Age (1870–1900), the time of the robber baron millionaires John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, at the end of the 19th century. Veblen presents the evolutionary development…
1904 depiction of an acquisitive and manipulative Standard Oil (founded by John D. Rockefeller) as an all-powerful octopus
1901 US cartoon from Puck depicting John D. Rockefeller as a business despot