ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen is the most creative mind American social thought has produced. "High-bred manners and ways of living are items of conformity to the norm of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption," he wrote. American Capitalism made the case for big government as a necessary "countervailing power" against big business and big labor. Critics such as Thomas Carlyle and Karl Marx had taken potshots at the house that Adam Smith built, but that was before the marginalist revolution. Max Weber's views on capitalism were more in the spirit of Adam Smith than of Veblen. He focused on America as the historical embodiment of the "Protestant ethic," in particular the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin. Both Veblen and Weber were obsessed with the meaning of contemporary industrial society—the issues of power, management, and surplus wealth. Weber used historical evidence to support his Protestant-ethic thesis. He also warned modern society about the "iron cage" of liberty.
