Veblen Workmanship pg. 219-230

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 This last section ends the chapter and a discussion of the competitive system.  Veblen defines a competitive system as:


  • Pecuniary rivalry and contention

  • Price system

  • Dominated by mechanic industries

  • Standardized consumption

  • Large scale industries

  • Material equipment held in private hands

  • Technological knowledge is held in a few specialized hands although it belongs to the entire community

  • Owners of the necessary equipment control the labor force.


Veblen then goes on to talk of the “captains of industry”. He asserts that these people who have in the past been technologically aware are not anymore. No longer are they aware of technology or perhaps even care to be aware of technology. The capitan does realize the need for industrial control and therefore begins to train and implement a new set of efficiency engineers. Yet, there remains an ongoing battle between workmanship and salesmanship even with these efficiency engineers.


Vebeln also emphasizes here that a genetic account must be given whereby theri was a transition from the handicraft era to the industrial era. This transition occurred because there was a need for a small number of owners to control large industries and the needs of the mechanical arts.  In an extended  footnote on page 229, Veblen says that it would take too much to explain the transition between the handicraft era and the industrial era.  


However, this seems to be a major problem because surely we need to understand how this process works. This is probably why many observers have noted that Veblen's model is incomplete.It is not clear for example whether habits of thought drive change or are changed and how that feedback loop works.  If technology is the driving force leading to changes in the material conditions which then led to changes in the habits of thought, what causes technology to change?


This section is clear as far as it goes ,but raises as many questions as it answers.


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