Law in Contemporary Society

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VeblenIfYouGiveAMouseACookie 8 - 06 Apr 2010 - Main.KalliopeKefallinos
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 Did you ever think capitalism might end because it was too… successful? Veblen offers this possibility.

Specifically, Veblen seems to define capitalism as the creation of conspicuous consumption. The higher classes accumulate profit to devote themselves to conspicuous consumption. Everyone emulates everyone who is higher than them in the social hierarchy. The lower classes emulate the higher classes by consuming as conspicuously as they possibly can. As capitalism progresses and the manifestations of conspicuous consumption grow in number, Veblen seems to say the lower classes may begin to feel like they are getting poorer and poorer comparatively. This feeling might be so strong that capitalism itself is overthrown.

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 I don't think that Veblen's invocation of evolution is at all a joke. He devotes much of the middle chapters to a Darwinian (more Lamarckian) analysis of social and pecuniary pressure and how that selects for certain mindsets. Not just in the individual (if a man feels the exigencies, he is more apt to change) but also inheritance of natural predispositions and acquired traits as well.

-- StephenSevero - 06 Apr 2010

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Stephen, I see your point. I guess I see him as being sarcastic when he calls the development of these mindsets "evolution," especially in light of him equating capitalism with old tribal relations. Evolution for Darwin necessarily means changing for the better, right?

-- KalliopeKefallinos - 06 Apr 2010

 
 
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Revision 8r8 - 06 Apr 2010 - 15:49:23 - KalliopeKefallinos
Revision 7r7 - 06 Apr 2010 - 15:18:32 - StephenSevero
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