Veblen was born of immigrant Norwegian in Wisconsin and he came up with the theory of leisure from which he tried to explain the nature of economics and the true meaning of leisure from the economist point of view. This is where Veblen started writing economics essays and theories. Other economist had explained the human factors in terms of self interest and competition but Veblen probed the human factors in detail. Veblen discovered that there is no leisure among the American Indians and also the Australia Bushmen. This is because everyone in those cultures just loved to work and they don’t have time for leisure and he noted further that the Indians and the Australia bushmen not that they work for profits but for the pride they find in workmanship and also for the concern and care they have for their children therefore their main goal is to satisfy their needs and those of their children. Veblen also studied the Polynesians and the shogunate system of feudal Japan and noticed that leisure existed in those cultures but not out of being idle (Heilbroner, 1996). Its members worked so hard in seizing riches through force and they didn’t contribute in the production of wealth.
According to Veblen the U.S business men seek to accumulate money and then displaying it. The workers, middle class citizens and the capitalist seek wealth through conspicuous expenditure and also through the use of money only to prove their status. He noted that the Americans looked down upon physical works compared to the office work. The business executives keep on accumulating wealth beyond their normal needs.
Veblen also came up with the theory of business enterprise. In this theory he dwelled on technocracy that is the belief and perception in government by the technical experts. Veblen rejected the earlier theories that the capitalist is the driving force for economic progress. According to him, the business person is the saboteur of business (Heilbroner, 1996). He noted that that the machines have dominated the society and therefore they have replaced the people. Predicting the future, Veblen predicted the end of the capitalist as result of the emergence of the machine. Machines do not care about making profits and business people will only be able to make profits when they manage to cause breakdowns in the production process so the values may fluctuate.
The robber barons are only mindful about making profits but not producing goods and he didn’t believe that the American democracy can correct those abuses. In his book ‘’higher learning in America’’ that received a lot of criticism, he stated how the American centers of learning were being changed into the centers of football and also into the centers of high powered public relation (Heilbroner, 1996). He preferred to use anthropology and psychology as better tools that can be used to study the society than the theoretical law of economics. These are the factor that makes Veblen believe that with the emergence of computers and robotics, the people in the blue collar jobs will soon be disposed of their jobs in the work place.
Work cited
Heilbroner, Robert L. Teachings from the worldly philosophy. WW Norton & Company, 1996.
