The industrial degradation of the workplace that Thorstein Veblen overlooked.

This article critically examines Thorstein Veblen’s treatment of work and industrialisation, highlighting his emphasis on the instinct of workmanship as a fundamental human drive and his optimistic view of mechanised industrial labour. It details how Veblen largely overlooked the rapid proletarianisation and degradation of American workers’ conditions during industrialisation—a process well documented by earlier economists like Adam Smith and Karl Marx—and the resulting widespread worker unrest. The article further explores Veblen’s failure to connect the deteriorated quality of work with the rise of conspicuous consumption, a central theme in his work, arguing that industrialisation’s impact on work undermined social certification through labour and shifted status-seeking toward consumption. Finally, it suggests that Veblen’s intellectual preconceptions and focus on abstract theory may have limited his engagement with the concrete realities of labour degradation and class conflict in his era.