Veblen and George 223theory into the discussion. Veblen considered the scientist, the
inventor, the technician to be the driving force in industry. After
all, the product must be invented before someone can invest in
its production. Also, Veblen saw two totally different mentali
ties at work, each at odds with the other—those who make the
goods and those who make the money.
The technician and scientist are interested in the product.
Their very mentality is geared towards creating, producing,
improving, and perfecting products. They begin the system of
industrialization, and work within it. Each improvement, ad
vancement, and refinement of a product is a source of personal
satisfaction to them. Like a parent bringing up a child, they
create, nurse, nurture, and bring to maturity, their brainchild.
And Veblen sees them as the backbone of industry.
The capitalist, the businessman, or the investor comes from a
different perspective. He is interested in making money, driving
competitors out of business, selling ideas not products. The
businessman is not the driving force of industrialization—he is
the saboteur. His first concern is profit. His interests are sales
manship, marketing strategies, advertising gimmicks— what
ever devices which can sell. Often the desire to sell, to increase
income and profit, and to drive competitors out of business,
comes into conflict with the integrity of the product. Veblen is
certain that the businessman, consumed with self, threatens the
product. His choices are made by considerations which are
antithetical to producing the best product at the lowest cost. He
seeks to sell the most products at whatever price he can get.
Veblen calls for a revolt of the technicians. He sees the
technicians, engineers, machinists and industrial workers as the
only hope for the future. The capitalist system is built on a
structure that grew out of primitive, predatory man’s modus
operandi. It continues today in a sophisticated, industrial society
to which it is ill suited. Only a scientific approach “can penetrate
the origins and nature of the social compulsion of behavior and
thereby lay bare the irrationality of an economic system driven
by non- economic motives.” Once the capitalist system has
given way to a system owned and operated by the producers, the
resulting improvement of product with the lowering of price will
provide a higher standard of living for all.