Thorstein Veblen's Economic Theory

His father hoped that the younger Veblen would depicted object for the Lutheran ministry. At Carleton, the curriculum was heavily weighted toward religion, righteous ism, and the classics, with little emphasis given to scientific instruction. The political providence taught at Carleton conformed to the following common-sense doctrine: "Man has not save the right to life and liberty, but in like manner to property, or the self-possession and enjoyment of whatever he may, by his own manufacture or good fortune, or the gift of others, have backsidedidly acquired" (Hobson, 1963, p. 13). Veblen's intellectual awakening at Carleton was spurred more by his famished appetite for independent avering than by the college curriculum. Veblen did, however, establish a friendship with teacher John Bates Clark, who was later to become a distinguished economist.

Veblen did not fit in well at Carleton College. Part of the problem was the frugality with which he and two of his siblings who also attended the college were forced to live. Veblen's father built them a smallish house to live in on a make do near campus, and they all dressed in clothes do by their mother: "These obvious signs of poverty and their natural solecism set them off as a class asunder from the proper Yankee tradition of Carleton" (Seckler, 1975, p. 26). Veblen's reputation as a misfit was exacerbated by his tendency to espouse unpopular ideals. At Carleton's weekly rhetorical exercises, he gained an unsavory reputation for deliveri

Seckler, D. (1975). Thorstein Veblen and the institutionalists. Boulder, CO: Colorado Associated University Press.

Veblen's professional career can best be described as an pedantic in search of tenure. After graduation from Carleton, he taught mathematics for a year in a Norwegian college in Wisconsin. When that college closed, Veblen and his brother enrolled in Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where Veblen studied philosophy. Experiencing financial difficulties, he remaining school. Veblen later enrolled in Yale, again focusing on philosophy: "He utilized these years at Yale to make wide inquiries into the writings of Hegel, Spencer and Kant . . . " (Seckler, 1975, p. 29). Veblen earned his Ph.D.

in 1884 with a dissertation on "Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution."

ng such speeches as "A Plea for Cannibalism" and "An Apology for Toper," a address which justified the behavior of drunkards.

With no prospects of academic employment, Veblen returned home to his family's arise in Minnesota and for seven years was absent from the academic world. Although Veblen wrote a few unpublished articles, engaged in sharp discussions with his father over economic and political problems, and tinkered with a few inventions, he was largely unproductive. As one of Veblen's brothers put it, "He read and loafed, and then the next day he loafed and read" (Diggins, 1978, p. 36). In 1888, Veblen married Ellen constituent, the daughter of a well-to-do Iowa farmer. Role had been a former classmate at Carleton. Both she and Veblen were greedy readers, and one of the books which had a profound effect on the two of them was Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: "Veblen's development of the themes of 'conspicuous consumption,' of the conflict of interest between the businessman and the community, and his examination of the disutility of labour, bear a close similarity to Bellamy's earlier, brilliant work" (Seckler, 1975, p. 29). Failing to obtain a teaching position, Ve
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