In his early years, Mister Galbraith was greatly influenced by the economist Thorstein Veblen and his book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class."

VOA: special.2011.05.01

Economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen took a crack at it in The Theory of the Leisure Class, the 1899 classic that wryly posited the theory of "conspicuous consumption, " his phrase for keeping up with the Joneses.

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Of course there's always Thorstein Veblen's explanation: "conspicuous consumption, " propounded in his 1899 classic, The Theory of the Leisure Class.

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