Chapter 4: Conspicuous Consumption
The locus classicus where Veblen names and theorizes the phenomenon, contrasting it with productive consumption.
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From The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen
Veblen's signature concept: the leisure class consumes goods and services wastefully and visibly to advertise pecuniary strength and social standing, not to satisfy needs.
Chapter 4
Famous claim that the consumption of luxuries is a mark of the master and that costly entertainments serve invidious comparison.
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