소스타인 베블런 / 유한계급론

THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS

by Thorstein Veblen

The institution of a leisure class is found in its best development at the higher stages of the barbarian culture; as, for instance, in feudal Europe or feudal Japan. In such communities the distinction between classes is very rigorously observed; and the feature of most striking economic significance in these class differences is the distinction maintained between the employments proper to the several classes. The upper classes are by custom exempt or excluded from industrial occupations, and are reserved for certain employments to which a degree of honour attaches. Chief among the honourable employments in any feudal community is warfare; and priestly service is commonly second to warfare. If the barbarian community is not notably warlike, the priestly office may take the precedence, with that of the warrior second. But the rule holds with but slight exceptions that, whether warriors or priests, the upper classes are exempt from industrial employments, and this exemption is the economic expression of their superior rank. Brahmin India affords a fair illustration of the industrial exemption of both these classes. In the communities belonging to the higher barbarian culture there is a considerable differentiation of sub-classes within what may be comprehensively called the leisure class; and there is a corresponding differentiation of employments between these sub-classes. The leisure class as a whole comprises the noble and the priestly classes,

together with much of their retinue. The occupations of the class are correspondingly diversified; but they have the common economic characteristic of being non-industrial. These non-industrial upper-class occupations may be roughly comprised under government, warfare, religious observances, and sports.

유한(有閑)계급이란

직업은 신분에 따라 분화되나 비생산적이라는 점에서 공통의 경제적 특징을 가지고 있다. 이들 비생산적인 상류 유한계급의 직업은 대체로 정치, 전쟁, 종교의식 및 스포츠로 구성된다. 그리고 이런 유한계급이 유지되려면 다음과 같은 조건이 필요하다.

첫째, 그 공동체는 가치 있는 직업을 가지고 공을 세운 사람이 일상생활에 필요한 것들을 생산하는 가치 없는 직업에 종사하는 사람을 착취하는 약탈적 생활습관을 가져야 한다.

둘째, 그 공동체의 상당수가 일상(日常)노동에서 면제될 수 있도록 생활자료를 충분히 구할 수 있어야만 된다. 즉 유한계급의 제도란 가치 있는 직업과 가치 없는 직업을 차별하는데서 생긴 것이다. 그러므로 유한계급의 임무는 기생충적 성질의 것이며 그들의 모든 관심은 어떤 것을 자기의 것으로 전용하고 자신의 것은 절대 내어놓지 않는 데 있다. 

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was an American economist and sociologist. He is well known as a witty critic of capitalism.
Contents:
The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Theory of Business Enterprise
The Instinct of Workmanship and the State of the Industrial Arts
Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution
An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation
The Higher Learning in America
The Vested Interests and the Common Man
The Engineers and the Price System
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation
The Evolution of the Scientific Point of View
Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?
The Preconceptions of Economic Science
The Limitations of Marginal Utility
Industrial and Pecuniary Employments
On the Nature of Capital
Some Neglected Points in the Theory of Socialism
The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx
Panem et Circenses
Böhm-Bawerk's Definition of Capital and the Source of Wages
The Overproduction Fallacy
The Price of Wheat since 1867
Adolph Wagner's New Treatise
The Food Supply and the Price of Wheat
The Army of the Commonweal
The Economic Theory of Women's Dress
The Instinct of Workmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor
The Beginning of Ownership
The Barbarian Status of Women
Mr. Cummings's Strictures on "The Theory of the Leisure Class"
The Later Railway Combinations
Levasseur on Hand and Machine Labor
The use of loan credit in modern business
Credit and Prices
Fisher's Capital and Income
The Industrial System and the Captains of Industry
The Captains of Finance and the Engineers
The Opportunity if Japan
The Japanese Lose Hopes for Germany
On the General Principles of a Policy of Reconstruction
The Passing of National Frontiers
Farm Labor for the Period of the War
Bolshevism is a Menace to Whom? ….