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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Pecuniary Standard of Living.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What allowed a leisure class to emerge?
(a) Differentiation and specialization of labor.
(b) Expansion of the military.
(c) Exploitation of workers.
(d) Improvements in production efficiency.

2. How does Veblen say members of a society are ranked and judged?
(a) In terms of their power.
(b) In terms of their noble lineage.
(c) In terms of their wealth.
(d) In terms of their morals.

3. What does Veblen say comprises people's standard of living?
(a) Their luxuries.
(b) Their debt.
(c) Their necessary consumption.
(d) Their habitual expenditures.

4. What does Veblen say about the upper classes in Iceland and Polynesia?
(a) That they invested the capital and give laborers the means of production.
(b) That they were barred from physical labor.
(c) That they worked alongside the rest.
(d) That they offered their vassals' labor to the priests.

5. What happens when people attain a certain level of consumption?
(a) They are free to move down, but it is difficult to move further up.
(b) It is easier to reach what has been just out of reach.
(c) They try to raise their children with less frivolous things.
(d) It is difficult to move to a lower level.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Veblen classify industrial labor in industrial societies?

2. How do standards of consumption change?

3. What does Veblen say happens whenever people acquire a greater ability to pay?

4. Which cultures exhibited the leisure class?

5. What consumption articles does Veblen state that the consumer hangs on to the most?

(see the answer key)

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