The Theory of the Leisure Class

<p>Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most influential work of Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929). In 1899, during America’s Gilded Age, Veblen wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class as a reminder that all that glisters is not gold. He picked on traits of the waning landed class of Americans and showed how the new moneyed class was adopting these in ways that led to greater waste throughout society. He called these conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption and he developed a critique of a system that favoured profits for owners without regard to social good. The Theory of the Leisure Class was a best seller and funded Veblen for the rest of his life, and his ideas influenced the New Deal of the 1930s. Since then, an item that becomes more desirable as it becomes more expensive is known as a Veblen good. </p><p>With </p><p>Matthew Watson Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick</p><p>Bill Waller Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York</p><p>And</p><p>Mary Wrenn Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of the West of England</p><p>Producer: Simon Tillotson</p><p>Reading list:</p><p>Charles Camic, Veblen: The Making of an Economist who Unmade Economics (Harvard University Press, 2021)</p><p>John P. Diggins, Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of the Leisure Class (Princeton University Press, 1999)</p><p>John P. Diggins, The Bard of Savagery: Thorstein Veblen and Modern Social Theory (Seabury Press, 1978)</p><p>John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (Penguin, 1999) Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (Penguin, 2000), particularly the chapter ‘The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen’</p><p>Ken McCormick, Veblen in Plain English: A Complete Introduction to Thorstein Veblen’s Economics (Cambria Press, 2006)</p><p>Sidney Plotkin and Rick Tilman, The Political Ideas of Thorstein Veblen (Yale University Press, 2012)</p><p>Juliet B. Schor, The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (William