The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions

In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen attributed the conspicuous consumption of the ‘pecuniary class’ to the atavistic survival or the values of a pre-industrial society in the era of industrialism. Currently the surge of globalization under the control of the rich has not only increased the concentration of economic power everywhere but also has rendered whole economy and the majority of the people every where insecure in their prospects of retaining a decent livelihood and keeping their families in a position to receive the health care, education and physical security they need. This is especially true of poorer countries which introduced total deregulation of the financial sector as the final milestone in their journey towards a globalized economy. One of the most tragic examples of a country devastated by such policies is Argentina. The advertising industry and the media not only want to promote the conspicuous consumption of the rich but also ‘manufacture’ consent of the exploited to the pattern of consumption that is most profitable to global capital. While politicians might sententiously denounce violence and sex crimes in society, newspapers splash photographs of nudes or semi-nudes on their pages everyday and major TV channels and movie producers thrive on stories filled with senseless violence and pornographic depiction of sexual acts. Classics such as Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay’s Debdas and Rabindranath Tagore Chokher Bali are made into mindless backdrops for a top model to pout and prance around in improbable settings and boring sequences.