Thorstein Veblen
were you ever eighteen, nineteen, twenty? were you ever a pain in the ass know it all? did you talk too much? had you not yet learned that while you're talkin', you ain't learnin'? I was, I was, I did, and I had. in some college class in which I blathered on about what was so self-evident it needed no proof, the professor called me back as I left and suggested I read Thorstein Veblen, any Veblen, but particularly _The Theory of the Leisure Class_. thank you, I said, and waltzed on out of class still listening to my own monologue. several years later, maybe even after college, I noticed an open book in a used book store. yes, once upon a time there were stores that sold used books, and in some of them you could find almost anything by chance and almost nothing on purpose. it was a game to drive the serious pain in the ass crazy. in any case, I glanced at the open book, then stood closer to read it, then sat down to read some more. A seriously good-looking young woman walked up, exasperated, and announced, "that's my chair and that's my book." now I knew or at least strongly suspected that neither was true, that both belonged to the used book store, and what she meant was that she had been using them first. I gallantly returned both and she remained unimpressed. "what book is it?" I asked, and she replied, "oh, just Thorstein Veblen's _Theory of the Leisure Class_." I about fell over. could my professor have been right after all? so I looked for the book. I looked for it under the label "economics". I looked for it under the label "sociology". I looked for it in a "general" area, which included books by retired military officers, mostly generals but some admirals. finally I asked the person at the cash register if they had another copy. "oh sure," he replied and plucked it off the unlabeled shelf behind him. those were the good old days, so I ponied up the five dollars or maybe even two dollars and fifty cents, and took my book. it was wonderful! it confirmed a little that I suspected, but revealed a lot that I didn't have the information or the wit to even guess! and Thorstein Veblen had spelled it out, piece by piece, ages before, to prove that I hadn't changed much from the PITA KIA that I'd been at eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, for a while I ran around with my _Theory of the Leisure Class_ held high like a Bible hollering "why isn't this taught in school?" and of course it is, some places, some times. but mostly not. we prefer the mirror that shows us to be the nice people, the good people, the smart people that we know we are. and if some damnfool author runs along holding up a mirror that shows us to be a little foolish often and a lot foolish sometimes, well then, poo on him and it's his own fault that he's ignored and forgotten. except he's not, not entirely. here and there, now and then, a few economists and sociologists quietly extend his work. but there's really not a lot to add. here's my nutshell of it: we've set up a class system in which even the rich and very rich don't have as much power and wealth as the wealthy, that is, the already unimaginable rich who also own the land and the means for producing wealth; we've set up laws and traditions and devices so the wealthy stay invisible to us, but they control jobs and incomes and prices for the rest of us. I am told my nutshell is too simple and naive, but I think it's close to what I read in Thorstein Veblen who wrote about them over a century ago before we started calling them the 1%, the 2%, and the 10%. is this a problem? if so, is there a solution? Veblen's job was to show us what's so, even if we didn't want to believe it. I think he did a damn good job. if we want a problem and a solution, that's up to us.
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