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It is not because he is a leader of industry that a man is a capitalist; on the contrary, he is a leader of industry because he is a capitalist.

The surplus-value produced by a given capital is equal to the surplus-value produced by each workman multiplied by the number of workmen simultaneously employed.

The value of a commodity is, in itself, of no interest to the capitalist. What alone interests him, is the surplus-value that dwells in it, and is realisable by sale.

The value of a commodity is, in itself, of no interest to the capitalist. What alone interests him, is the surplus-value that dwells in it, and is realisable by sale.

Habit formation is key to consumption.

Throughout the entire evolution of conspicuous expendi- ture, whether of goods or of services or human life, runs the obvious implication that in order to effectually mend the consumer’s good fame it must be an expenditure of superfluities. In order to be reputable it must be wasteful.

Veblen suggests that owning servants, slaves and wives has been replaced by commodities. No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.

Veblen suggests that owning servants, slaves and wives has been replaced by commodities. He further says - No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.

Women and slaves are highly valued, both as an evidence of wealth and as a means of accumulating wealth. Together with cattle, if the tribe is a pastoral one, they are the usual form of investment for a profit. To such an extent may female slavery give its character to the economic life under the quasi-peaceable culture that the women even comes to serve as a unit of value among peoples occupying this cultural stage.

Women and slaves are highly valued, both as an evidence of wealth and as a means of accumulating wealth. Together with cattle, if the tribe is a pastoral one, they are the usual form of investment for a profit. To such an extent may female slavery give its character to the economic life under the quasi-peaceable culture that the women even comes to serve as a unit of value among peoples occupying this cultural stage.

As seen from the economic point of view, leisure, considered as an employment, is closely allied in kind with the life of exploit;

As seen from the economic point of view, leisure, considered as an employment, is closely allied in kind with the life of exploit;

From the days of the Greek philosophers to the present, a degree of leisure and of exemption from contact with such industrial processes as serve the immediate everyday
purposes of human life has ever been recognised by thoughtful men as a prerequisite to a worthy or beautiful, or even a blameless, human life.

He talks about wealth as a higher form of "exploit".

A certain standard of wealth in the one case, and of prowess in the other, is a necessary condition of reputability, and anything in excess of this normal amount is meritorious.

A key feature that carries on from primitive societies (in author's view) is that of exploits. A booty is a sign of successful aggression (since direct aggression is removed from noble classes).