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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How do standards of consumption change?
(a) They change with every season.
(b) Slower in societies with more social mobility.
(c) Very slowly over time.
(d) Faster in societies with less social mobility.

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

4. 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 difficult to move to a lower level.
(c) They try to raise their children with less frivolous things.
(d) It is easier to reach what has been just out of reach.

5. What principle does Veblen say guides the consumer's habits?
(a) Vicarious waste.
(b) Conspicuous waste.
(c) Conspicuous consumption.
(d) Vicarious consumption.

Short Answer Questions

1. What aspect of culture was a condition for the development of a leisure class?

2. What does Veblen say makes wealth desirable?

3. What is the relationship between manners and class?

4. How does a man of leisure indicate his position in society?

5. What allowed a leisure class to emerge?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the different social classes distinguished?

2. What is the relationship between the necessities of life and an individual's standard of living?

3. How are churches and ornate buildings related to conspicuous waste?

4. Why do most people spend in excess of what is required for their physical comfort?

5. How does style ensure conspicuous waste?

6. What began with private ownership?

7. How does the clergy demonstrate vicarious leisure?

8. What do a man's possessions say about the man?

9. How have women's clothes demonstrated that the woman does not engage in productive employment?

10. How has the leisure class evolved from the times of hunting cultures?

(see the answer keys)

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