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

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

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

4. What does Veblen say was the earliest form of ownership?
(a) Ownership of hunting rights.
(b) Ownership of land.
(c) Ownership of women.
(d) Ownership of songs.

5. What does Veblen say a person's possessions determine in ownership societies?
(a) Virtue.
(b) Profession.
(c) Class.
(d) Status.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are signs of vicarious consumption?

2. What clothes should members of the leisure class wear?

3. What did men use to display their exploits during the earliest forms of ownership?

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

5. What does Veblen say an ownership society motivates people to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did primitive societies divide the labor?

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

3. What do expensive clothes say about a person?

4. What status is attributed to scholars?

5. How does style ensure conspicuous waste?

6. What began with private ownership?

7. How does Veblen describe the differences between the sexes and the effect of those differences on economic life of a society?

8. Where does the institution of a leisure class appear in the development of culture?

9. How does the labor class view its work?

10. What kinds of feats replace productivity for the leisure class?

(see the answer keys)

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