ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen’s key points regarding the position of the consumer in relation to capitalist social structure seem to be as true today as they were approximately a century ago. In meticulous detail, Veblen documented the exploitation of the “common man” by the “robber barons” of his era. His overall argument seems to have been that modern society is really a latter-day barbarism, or a new version of feudal society which compels the common man to take on the role of the serf in relation to corporations as the leisure class. To phrase the matter another way, the common man becomes the prey to the government-corporate structure conceived as a predator. In Veblen’s words:
It is more true than it was a century ago that force and fraud characterize contemporary warfare, economic markets and the business professions, advertising, sports, gambling, and other institutions that are modeled on war, money-making, and sports. As I write this chapter, the world is “recovering” from the “Great Recession.” Today’s equivalents of Veblen’s robber barons on Wall Street were bailed out by the government while the common man gets little to no relief in terms of his or her financial debt, home foreclosures, or other private, financial catastrophes. State governments are all in financial crisis and are resolving these crises through slashing budgets by cutting salaries and benefits for teachers, policemen, firemen, and other social roles that fit Veblen’s characterization of the common man. The situation in the European Union is similar to that of the US, with various EU countries taking on the role of individual states in the US. This phenomenon-the government aiding big business while declining to rescue the common man-has become the object of mockery and humor on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and other comedy television shows. But it has not become an object of academic study in or on Veblen’s terms.
