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Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen
page 100 of 368 (27%)
Men differ in respect of transmitted aptitudes, or in respect of
the relative facility with which they unfold their life activity
in particular directions; and the habits which coincide with or
proceed upon a relatively strong specific aptitude or a
relatively great specific facility of expression become of great
consequence to the man's well-being. The part played by this
element of aptitude in determining the relative tenacity of the
several habits which constitute the standard of living goes to
explain the extreme reluctance with which men give up any
habitual expenditure in the way of conspicuous
consumption. The aptitudes or propensities to which a habit of
this kind is to be referred as its ground are those aptitudes
whose exercise is comprised in emulation; and the propensity for
emulation -- for invidious comparison -- is of ancient growth and
is a pervading trait of human nature. It is easily called into
vigorous activity in any new form, and it asserts itself with
great insistence under any form under which it has once found
habitual expression. When the individual has once formed the
habit of seeking expression in a given line of honorific
expenditure -- when a given set of stimuli have come to be
habitually responded to in activity of a given kind and direction
under the guidance of these alert and deep-reaching propensities
of emulation -- it is with extreme reluctance that such an
habitual expenditure is given up. And on the other hand, whenever
an accession of pecuniary strength puts the individual in a
position to unfold his life process in larger scope and with
additional reach, the ancient propensities of the race will
assert themselves in determining the direction which the new
unfolding of life is to take. And those propensities which are
already actively in the field under some related form of
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