Thorstein Veblen

"The engineer could solve most material problems if freed from financial constraints."

"Habitual patterns of thought persist even when consciously recognized as absurd."

"The price of commodities bears little relationship to their actual utility or cost of production."

"Status distinctions based on consumption create endless artificial needs and dissatisfaction."

"Machine production has the potential to eliminate want but remains restricted by artificial scarcity."

"The captains of industry must prevent rather than encourage industrial efficiency."

"Workmanship as an instinct finds satisfaction in creation regardless of economic reward."

"The modern corporation fragments knowledge and prevents understanding of productive processes."

"Pecuniary strength becomes confused with actual productive capacity in popular discourse."

"The spirit of emulation is deliberately cultivated by those who profit from conspicuous consumption."

"Institutional conservatism prevents the kind of radical institutional reform that modern conditions demand."

"The leisure class defines status through activities that demonstrate freedom from productive necessity."

"Industrial civilization has created abundance while remaining controlled by scarcity-consciousness."

"The distinction between pecuniary success and genuine human flourishing remains deliberately obscured."

"Predatory business practices have become so normalized as to appear natural rather than cultural."

"The craftsman's knowledge and pride in work represent human capacities industrial capitalism suppresses."

"The most substantial character is built not upon flashes of emotion but upon the accumulated habits of daily behavior."

"Invention has not kept pace with the growth of our productive capacity, leading us into chronic unemployment and waste."

"The instinct of workmanship is thwarted by the requirements of conspicuous consumption."

"Beauty is not an absolute quality but a reflection of the economic status one wishes to display."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the financially desperate seeking validation through national pride."

"The leisure class perpetuates itself through the careful cultivation of useless pursuits and wasteful habits."

"Education that fails to cultivate critical thinking merely serves as a tool of class perpetuation."

"Economic theory divorced from observation of actual human behavior becomes mere metaphysical speculation."

"The machine process enforces habits of thought that are profoundly at odds with animistic superstition."

"Emulation of the successful becomes the primary driver of human action in modern society."

"The accumulation of goods serves primarily as evidence of one's exemption from productive labor."

"Industrial efficiency and military preparedness are fundamentally incompatible aspirations."

"Truth in economic matters is obscured by the vested interests of those who benefit from existing arrangements."

"The businessman's morality differs substantially from that demanded by the machine process itself."