CHAPTER 24
Veblen and George:
The Theory of the Leisure Class and
the Single Tax
Thorsten Veblen (1857-1929)
Thorsten Veblen was bom in 1857 in Cato, a small town on the
Wisconsin frontier. He moved with his family to Minnesota
where he spent his youth, the sixth of twelve children. He lived
in a very tight-knit Norwegian community and actually learned
English as a second language; he spoke it imperfectly until he
had completed college.
He attended Carleton College, applied for a scholarship at
Johns Hopkins, which failed to materialize, and finally received
his Ph.D. in 1884 from Yale. After his graduation from Yale he
returned to his father’s farm, where he spent several years
reading or doing nothing at all. Throughout his educational
career he earned the respect of his professors for his intellect and
their disdain for his iconoclastic behavior. In fact his entire life
was plagued by scandal, alienation, conflict, and outrageous
behavior. He taught at Cornell and the University of Chicago,
the University of Missouri, Stanford, and the New School in
New York. His longest tenure was at the University of Chicago,
where he wrote his most famous book, The Theory o f the Leisure
Class. He was dismissed from the University of Chicago be
cause of his utter disregard for his students in the classroom, and
his high regard for his female students outside the classroom.
Veblen considers the nature of man to be only slightly
different from the savage barbarians who lived centuries ago. In
primitive cultures the pillaging warriors, through strength, force
and violence, seized the property of their enemies. Rituals and
trophies became the means to identify those who had proved
their strength in battle. They took the scalps of their enemies,
their shields, their swords, their women. Their worth as individu
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