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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who decides what level of consumption is honorable?
(a) The merchants.
(b) The workers.
(c) The community itself.
(d) The aristocrats.

2. What kind of leisure is created by inheritance?
(a) Obligatory leisure.
(b) Vicarious leisure.
(c) Marginal leisure.
(d) Super-leisure.

3. Private ownership led to what cultural development?
(a) Jealousy and murders.
(b) War.
(c) Dueling.
(d) Competition for goods.

4. What classes does Veblen describe emerging as society developed?
(a) Blue-collar and white-collar classes.
(b) Proletariat and bourgeoisie.
(c) Industrial and nonindustrial classes.
(d) Workers and parasites.

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

6. What distinction does Veblen say emerged between types of labor in cultures that had a leisure class?
(a) Between agitators and protestors.
(b) Between capitalists and communists.
(c) Between workers, managers, and owners.
(d) Between worthy and unworthy labor.

7. Who engages in vicarious consumption?
(a) Men of leisure.
(b) Servants.
(c) Slaves.
(d) Workers.

8. What does Veblen say a woman's dress indicates about her spouse?
(a) Her interdependence upon him.
(b) Her affection for him.
(c) Her independence from him.
(d) Her reliance upon him.

9. What happens to the standard of wealth over time?
(a) It changes as trends change.
(b) It remains the same until technology increases efficiencies again.
(c) It declines as efficiencies make wealth easier to obtain.
(d) It keeps increasing as society becomes more efficient.

10. How have the upper classes distinguished themselves from the other classes?
(a) They have worked only in positions that have prestige.
(b) They have worked at the highest paying jobs.
(c) They have been able to work at any job they choose.
(d) They have not worked.

11. Vicarious consumption reflects whose standing?
(a) The servant's.
(b) The slave's.
(c) The worker's.
(d) The patron's.

12. How does a man of leisure indicate his position in society?
(a) By his association with people of renown.
(b) By giving money to charities.
(c) By consuming and giving away certain things.
(d) By volunteering to help the poor.

13. What stage of culture contained the institution of the leisure class?
(a) Early stages of agricultural culture.
(b) High stages of barbarian culture.
(c) Late stages of agricultural culture.
(d) Late stages of hunting culture.

14. What makes dress a good indicator of conspicuous waste?
(a) Everyone has to wear it.
(b) It is always on display.
(c) It can be made in so many different ways.
(d) Everyone knows how much clothing costs.

15. How does the upper class distinguish itself, according to Veblen?
(a) By profiting from labor.
(b) By avoiding labor.
(c) By selling the proceeds of its labor.
(d) By performing labor efficiently.

Short Answer Questions

1. What term does Veblen use to describe horses and dogs?

2. What does Veblen say motivates conspicuous waste?

3. What is the relationship between manners and class?

4. What does consumption yield to the individual?

5. How does Veblen say wealth is obtained?

(see the answer keys)

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