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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. How does Veblen say the laboring classes in an agricultural society see work?
(a) It is the minimum requirement.
(b) It is not undignified.
(c) It is the means to advancement.
(d) It is humiliating.

4. 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.

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

6. 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) It is difficult to move to a lower level.
(d) They try to raise their children with less frivolous things.

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

8. What is reserved for the leisure class?
(a) Travel.
(b) Luxuries like jewelry.
(c) Possession of slaves.
(d) Owning property.

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

10. What does Veblen say public lawns have?
(a) Pecuniary beauty.
(b) Emulation of pastures.
(c) Lower maintenance than pastures.
(d) More aesthetic beauty than pastures.

11. What factors drove the emergence of the leisure class?
(a) Technological forces.
(b) Military forces.
(c) Geographical forces.
(d) Economic forces.

12. What are the standards of consumption determined by?
(a) Conspicuous waste and workmanship.
(b) Industrial production.
(c) Class mobility.
(d) Physical comfort.

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

14. Why do people spend more than they need for physical comfort?
(a) They cannot keep excess wealth.
(b) They need to stimulate their local economy.
(c) They conform to a code of decency.
(d) They want to impress their superiors.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Veblen say a person's possessions determine in ownership societies?

3. What does Veblen say was the earliest form of ownership?

4. What distinction does Veblen say emerged between types of labor in cultures that had a leisure class?

5. How does Veblen say members of a society are ranked and judged?

(see the answer keys)

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