Bus 1050 1st Edition Lecture 16 Outline of Last Lecture II Aquinas of Cheating Which is Committed in Buying and Selling from The Summa Theologica A Third Article B Fourth Article Outline of Current Lecture III Veblen Pecuniary Emulation and Conspicuous Consumption from Theory of the Leisure Class Current Lecture Veblen Theory of the Leisure Class Back in the day tribes were nomadic Tribes consisted of hunters and gatherers They moved around because they went where the food was Men would raid other tribes and bring back women and as a result the people of the tribe would envy them and looked up to them Nowadays we believe that men seek the women that would be best to bear their children Chattel means property and during those tribal days women were considered personal property Across almost every culture women have been looked as property If one brings back the best women it gives the men self respect but it s also the possessions that the women make that increase their self respect An abundant amount of evidence goes to show that the amount of possessions one has relative to their peers determines whether or not one feels good about oneself Pg 270 line 36 the motive that lies at the root of ownership is emulation We acquire things to have more than others and this makes them envious of us Invidious means envious And although there are other incentives like comfort security and power the argument here is that one s driving motive is to have others envy us Pg 272 line 34 The canons of reputability include not looking back but only looking forward The question eventually becomes how much do I have to make in order to achieve the next status level These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute The majority of people live lives of chronic dissatisfaction if they do not have lots of stuff They believe that they need to feel superior and that that they need to be envied From Veblen s perspective our self esteem is based on this idea of having more things During Veblen s time new money was money that was earned while old was money was money that was inherited One would think that people who earned the wealth would be envied more than those who worked for it but that was not the case Conspicuous consumption If one achieves the status of having lots of expensive goods one needs to distinguish oneself from the others in this leisure class How might someone accomplish this one might ask Through expensive drinks and narcotics is one answer What matters is that they are expensive and that s the only thing that matters Whether or not it damages one s health is irrelevant One can also distinguish oneself if they are already rich by throwing large parties The more that one can afford to throw away the more one is superior to their peers Professor Dunie gave an example of him attending a party where a tower of food was thrown away because most of it remained untouched There s a need to conspicuously waste in order to impress one s peers Pg 278 Let s say someone reaches a certain status and then that someone loses their job Any rational person would stop spending money on luxuries but most people will keep spending money on anything that s visible to the public and cut back on things that aren t visible like the necessities of life eating noodles every night Pg 280 Once one satisfies the necessities of life one doesn t relax but works even harder to buy more things that they don t need Our needs are never ending and we tend to spend our entire lives acquiring things we don t need conspicuous spending