Veblen & the Leisure Class - Working Hard or Hardly Working?

"Conversely, the greater the proficiency and the more patent the evidence of a high degree of habituation to observances which serve no lucrative or other directly useful purpose, the greater the consumption of time and substance impliedly involved in their acquisition, and the greater the resultant good repute." (32)

Below are some assorted thoughts on Veblen:

What characterizes the leisure classes is not simply the accumulation of material wealth, but the belief that they are entitled to such an accumulation (we discussed this in class w.r.t Mills.)

When I read about the wealthy, "leisure class" described in Veblen, I was immediately reminded of auction houses that deal in fine art or luxury property sales. I have never been to an art auction but I have seen them portrayed on television, in the movies, and heard stories about them from friends who work in the business of selling art. The truly wealthy send their assistants or whomever to bid for them- *perhaps this is where the phrase "to do so-and-so's bidding" came from, though I don't know. The leisure class with money aren't even present in these instances! They are doing what Veblen describes, namely, enacting the business of being wealthy and overseeing things from on high, without having to do any physical "labor". I wonder where the idea of large-scale anonymous donations or philanthropy fits in Veblen's idea of leisure class. Is an anonymous donation of a huge sum interpretable as a symbolic gesture of the leisure class' need to conceal their wealth? Is it part of the act of doing something they're "supposed" to do? (though I'm not entirely cynical; I believe that some people make generous anonymous donations for reasons of modesty, and also because they believe in various causes and social improvement.)

Another interesting point that Veblen brings up is the relationship of technology and tools to a societal transformation in ownership. Tools allow for greater productivity. More productivity means more things to accumulate and increased time for those in power to collect and buy stuff. Humans, and animals such as the bower bird, like stuff.

Of course what rich people buy is not necessarily "high-class"; however I'm sure they like the myth that we imagine for them, the greater myth we participate in where we collectively imagine that they buy rich things and have fun activities in the presence of other rich people. Meanwhile, the hardworking, long-suffering staff plot their revenge. Cf. the great movie by Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, The Celebration (Festen) and countless other narratives in a similar vein.