Empirical methods Prescriptive and policy Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism.

His emphasis on conspicuous consumption greatly influenced economists who engaged in non-Marxist critiques of fascism, capitalism, and technological determinism.

[1] Despite their limited circumstances as immigrants, Thomas Veblen's knowledge in carpentry and construction, paired with his wife's supportive perseverance, allowed them to establish a family farm in Rice County, Minnesota, where they moved in 1864.

His parents also learned to speak English fluently, though they continued to read predominantly Norwegian literature with and around their family on the farmstead.

[6] According to Stanford University historian George M. Fredrickson (1959), the "Norwegian society" that Veblen lived in (Minnesota) was so "isolated" that when he left it "he was, in a sense, emigrating to America.

Veblen later developed an interest in the social sciences, taking courses within the fields of philosophy, natural history, and classical philology.

While some scholars have blamed alleged womanizing tendencies for the couple's numerous separations and eventual divorce in 1911, others have speculated that the relationship's demise was rooted in Ellen's inability to bear children.

However, after returning to northern California, Veblen lost the money he had invested and lived in a house on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park (that once belonged to his first wife).

[18] Some historians have also speculated that this failure to obtain employment was partially due to prejudice against Norwegians, while others attribute this to the fact that most universities and administrators considered him insufficiently educated in Christianity.

The group was open to students and aimed for a "an unbiased understanding of the existing order, its genesis, growth, and present working".

Veblen invited Guido Marx to the New School to teach and to help organize a movement of engineers with others such as Morris Cooke; Henry Gantt, who had died shortly before; and Howard Scott.

Rather than God's divine intervention taking control of the happenings of the universe, pragmatism believed that people, using their free will, shape the institutions of society.

This pragmatist belief was pertinent to the shaping of Veblen's critique of natural law and the establishment of his evolutionary economics, which recognized the purpose of man throughout.

This cycle of constant emulation promotes materialism, demotes other forms of fulfillment, and negatively impacts the consumer's decision-making process within the market.

The term originated during the Second Industrial Revolution when a nouveau riche social class emerged as a result of the accumulation of capital wealth.

He explains that members of the leisure class, often associated with business, are those who also engage in conspicuous consumption to impress the rest of society through the manifestation of their social power and prestige, be it real or perceived.

In other words, social status, Veblen explained, becomes earned and displayed by patterns of consumption rather than what the individual makes financially.

[44] In his documentary film Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky quoted Veblen's coinage of the phrase "Fabricating consumers", and its role in controlling the attitudes of people: One of the best ways to control people in terms of attitudes is what the great political economist Thorstein Veblen called "fabricating consumers."

To engage in conspicuous leisure is to openly display one's wealth and status, as productive work signified the absence of pecuniary strength and was seen as a mark of weakness.

[46] In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen writes critically of conspicuous consumption and its function in social-class consumerism and social stratification.

Upon the start of a division of labor, high-status individuals within the community practiced hunting and war, notably less labor-intensive and less economically productive work.

These individuals could engage in conspicuous leisure for extended periods of time, simply following pursuits that evoked a higher social status.

[50] Veblen expanded upon Adam Smith's assessment of the rich, stating that "[t]he leisure class used charitable activities as one of the ultimate benchmarks of the highest standard of living.

[56] Veblen admired Schmoller, but criticized some other leaders of the German school because of their over-reliance on descriptions, long displays of numerical data, and narratives of industrial development that rested on no underlying economic theory.

[62] Veblen defines "ceremonial" as related to the past, supportive of "tribal legends" or traditional conserving attitudes and conduct; while the "instrumental" orients itself toward the technological imperative, judging value by the ability to control future consequences.

[67] Veblen is regarded as one of the co-founders of the American school of institutional economics, alongside John R. Commons and Wesley Clair Mitchell.

His evolutionary approach to the study of economic systems is again gaining traction and his model of recurring conflict between the existing order and new ways can be of value in understanding the new global economy.

He is featured in The Big Money by John Dos Passos, and mentioned in Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Sinclair Lewis' Main Street.

Another was Canadian academic and author Stephen Leacock, who went on to become the head of Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University in Montreal.

President Bill Clinton honored Veblen as a great American thinker when he addressed King Harald V of Norway.