The Theory of the Leisure Class

Thorstein Veblen's 1899 satire of upper-class American consumption — which coined 'conspicuous consumption' and 'pecuniary emulation' — and argued that leisure and wasteful spending signal social status to inferior classes, driving economic behavior more than utility.

Creates the conspicuous consumption theory of consumer behavior — Veblen's argument that consumer purchases signal social position rather than maximize utility is the foundational document of the sociology of consumption and anticipated behavioral economics' challenge to neoclassical utility maximization by 70 years.