The Politics of a Consumption Economy

Abstract

Just as surely as an economy can move from production of machines on Main Street to the production of wealth on Wall Street, so, too, can an economy at the apex devolve toward economic isolation. An economic empire that enjoys the luxury of constant inflows of capital from abroad is doubly vulnerable to this isolation. Meanwhile, aspiring empires are all too happy to reinforce a complacent sense of well-being characterized by a consumer-based economic empire.

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

(Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption, 1902)