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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What term does Veblen use to describe horses and dogs?
(a) Pecuniary respectability.
(b) Conspicuous consumption.
(c) Conspicuous beauty.
(d) Pecuniary beauty.

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

4. When does Veblen say that a leisure class emerged?
(a) During the transition from savage barbarism to agricultural barbarism.
(b) During the transition from mercantilism to early industry.
(c) During the transition from primitive savagery to barbarism.
(d) During the transition from agricultural barbarism to urban mercantilism.

5. To whom does the requirement of excessive clothing apply most?
(a) Children.
(b) Servants.
(c) Women.
(d) Owners.

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

7. Why does Veblen say women wore corsets?
(a) Because restricting their movements prevented them from work.
(b) Because discomfort was a luxury.
(c) Because making them slenderer made them seem more expensive.
(d) Because restricting their movements made them less threatening.

8. How does Veblen explain the change of fashion from year to year?
(a) It is a form of cultural restlessness.
(b) It is a constantly renewed way to police who is current and who is classic.
(c) It is a shallow form of bourgeois emulation of different aristocratic idols.
(d) It is a form of conspicuous waste.

9. What spiritual need does clothing serve for people?
(a) Veblen says that it comforts them as God comforts them.
(b) Veblen says that it helps them conform to society.
(c) Veblen says that it reminds them of the discomforts Christ suffered.
(d) Veblen says that it helps them raise their eyes to the skies.

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

11. How does Veblen describe hunting in a predatory culture?
(a) It was the center of all activities.
(b) It was a form of sport.
(c) It was a necessary evil.
(d) It was the source of religion.

12. What does Veblen say causes an item of clothing to be seen as inferior?
(a) If it is gaudy.
(b) If it is widely available.
(c) If it is easy to manufacture.
(d) If it is cheap.

13. Spending money on ornate buildings is an example of what?
(a) Devout waste.
(b) Vicarious consumption.
(c) Vicarious waste.
(d) Conspicuous waste.

14. What does Veblen say the effects of an ownership society are on the behavior of its members?
(a) It makes people economically insecure.
(b) It makes people conservative.
(c) It makes people warlike.
(d) It makes people frugal.

15. Which employments were associated with a lower status?
(a) Diplomatic tasks.
(b) Crafts.
(c) Government tasks.
(d) Subsistence tasks.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do the clergy indicate the honor of their employment?

2. What does Veblen say motivates conspicuous waste?

3. What does consumption yield to the individual?

4. What factors drove the emergence of the leisure class?

5. What force does Veblen say shapes the standard of living?

(see the answer keys)

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