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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Veblen say happens to those who need to work but do not work?
(a) They take care of the children and elders.
(b) They become beggars.
(c) They are taken care by the stronger workers.
(d) They are exiled.

2. What does Veblen say happens as technology progresses?
(a) Men have more wives.
(b) Men have more children.
(c) Men have more time for activities beyond subsistence.
(d) Men have more time for prayer.

3. Which occupation would the leisure class have worked as?
(a) Engraver.
(b) Merchant.
(c) Writer.
(d) Minister.

4. How does Veblen classify industrial labor in industrial societies?
(a) As men's work.
(b) As women's work.
(c) As work that does not produce food or shelter.
(d) As work done by machines.

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

6. What do silver spoons have that machine-made spoons do not?
(a) Utility.
(b) Serviceability.
(c) Aesthetic design.
(d) Conspicuous waste.

7. What force does Veblen say shapes the standard of living?
(a) Human guilt.
(b) Physical hunger.
(c) The predatory animus.
(d) The industrial lifestyle.

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

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

10. What is the relationship between manners and class?
(a) Manners indicate social climbers.
(b) Manners indicate breeding and status.
(c) Manners indicate conformity to the dominant class's fashions.
(d) Manners change from time to time to keep newcomers at a disadvantage.

11. Who performs the most vicarious consumption, according to Veblen?
(a) Children.
(b) The women of the household.
(c) Servants.
(d) The wage earner.

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

13. What does Veblen say emulation leads to?
(a) Conspicuous produciton.
(b) Conspicuous servitude.
(c) Conspicuous consumption.
(d) Conspicuous waste.

14. How does Veblen say the upper classes in an agricultural society see work?
(a) They idealize it.
(b) They see it as dishonorable.
(c) They envy it.
(d) They master it.

15. What happens when men come into wealth through peaceful means?
(a) Property becomes an indicator of success.
(b) Property becomes the subject of competition and warfare.
(c) Property becomes an indicator of heritage.
(d) Property becomes the measure of spiritual values.

Short Answer Questions

1. How must a man of leisure act?

2. How does Veblen say wealth is obtained?

3. What incentive does Veblen say results from the desire to own property?

4. What does Veblen say happens to cultures that develop knowledge and tools?

5. What does Veblen say motivates conspicuous waste?

(see the answer keys)

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