chapter six

Conclusions

Living in a Veblenian World

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one

grew before. (Veblen [ 1919 ] 1961 , 33 )

I

n early 2010 , Abdoulaye Wade, the president of Senegal, unveiled the

African Renaissance, a giant bronze statue designed to celebrate the

rebirth of African greatness. The ceremony attracted a celebratory crowd

of dignitaries and fellow African leaders who came to congratulate Wade

on this achievement. Three points stood out to most Western observers.

First, at $ 27 million, this colossus was an extravagant investment for the

Senegalese economy. Second, heralded as the largest statue in the world,

the installation stands one foot taller than the Statue of Liberty. This is

hardly accidental. Finally, the brash pseudo- Stalinist design and generous

funding for this giant sculpture were provided by the equally destitute

North Koreans (Walker 2010 ; “Statuesque or Grotesque?,” 2010 ). The

Senegalese monument displays many symptoms of conspicuous consump-

tion: a preference for conspicuousness and extravagance, sensitivity to

rank, questionable prosociality, a desire to gain prestige, and an acceptance

of high cost. Not to be outdone by this colossal statue, in 2015 Greece,

still dealing with the aftermath of a historic economic crisis and bank-

ruptcy, debated the resurrection of the Colossus of Rhodes himself. True

to his name, the proposed 150 - meters- tall statue, with an estimated cost of

£ 250 mil lion, will dwarf both the Statue of Liberty and African Renaissance

(Williams 2015 ).

These examples of a modern- day Ozymandias, instilling awe in the ob-

server through their wasteful might, offer an extreme illustration of con-

temporary conspicuous consumption. They highlight the puzzling para-