NPR featured the book based on this theory as recommended summer/beach reading. While written in 1899 there are many parts that prove relevant ir not scary similar to today. This part of the wikipedia entry struck me as a significant present day departure:
“Veblen claimed that the leisure class managed to retain its position through both direct and indirect coercion. For example, the leisure class reserved for itself the “honor” of warfare, and often prevented members of the lower classes from owning weapons or learning how to fight. At the same time, it made the rest of the tribe feel dependent on the leisure class’s continued existence due to the fear of hostilities from other tribes or, as religions began to form, the hostility of imagined deities (Veblen argued that the first priests and religious leaders were members of the leisure class). To Veblen, society never grew out of this stage; it simply adapted into different forms and expressions. For example, he noted that during the Middle Ages, only the nobility was allowed to hunt and fight wars.”
There are definitely relevant selections from the entry, and with the success with books like Richistan among others, I think that academia is forced to take opulence and the way people project and glamorize their lifestyle more and more into account, not only in an anthropological light but a philosophical one as well
