BackIndia’s leisure class
The pursuit of more material possession is not a quest for more enjoyment or comfort, it is a race for reputability
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Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was a Norwegian economist whose quality of insight is inversely related to his fame, to put it in economic terms. In short, he was brilliant, but remains relatively unknown. We could draw the immediate conclusion from this that quality alone does not ensure professional success. While true, that is a point only partially related to our story today.
Money and the unfairness of its distribution in society is a topic that has been endlessly debated across the world, in politics and great literature. Recently it is attracting renewed attention, as inequality is increasing in many developed countries.The spotlight is turned on the top 1%, which is getting disproportionately more wealthy while incomes in the middle classes are stagnating or decreasing.
Yet for the world as a whole, income differences are decreasing, according to Branko Milanovic of the World Bank. The main drivers of this are China and India, where average real incomes are increasing for millions. (Never mind that part of the Lok Sabha elections will still be fought over the rhetorical question: whether the Indian economy is on the right track.)
Indeed, India’s growth has produced a new class of people over the last few decades or so, to which one of Veblen’s most piercing analyses seems to apply. His best known work, at least among economists, is The Theory of the Leisure Class. In it he described a phenomenon that a certain cohort of people in society does not (seem to) work for a living, nor derives its status from activity. He referred to the polo-playing, champagne-sipping, upper regions of society, and termed them the leisure class.
India has its own leisure class. One can meet them in the high-end shopping arcades—such as the DLF Emporio mall in Delhi—especially on weekdays when most people are at work. Here we meet people with large Ralph Lauren-logo clad polos tugged into Armani jeans, sporting shiny Cartier watches and golden Ray-Ban sunglasses. Women tote piles of shopping bags that resemble peacock tails on both arms, or have them carried by domestic staff. The facial expressions are serious, or even bored and hollow. More often than not, the body frames are testimony of leisure too, in which even the staunchest optimists cannot spot traces of the discipline of sports or physical labour.
Bollywood stars are natural members of the leisure class. We never see them at work. Even when watching them on the silver screen, we do not think of them as working. They are the eternal leisurers, it seems, and since they are often good looking too, they have everything any status-anxious youngster could dream of.
Veblen observed that in almost any society, the possession of wealth confers honour. India seems no exception. As a result, the pursuit of more material possession is not a quest for more enjoyment or comfort. It is a race for reputability. And no other form of action communicates wealth more clearly than being able to engage in no action at all. “A life of leisure," said Veblen, “is the readiest and most conclusive evidence of pecuniary strength, and therefore of superior force." The leisure class gains top status through ostentatious, flauntable inactivity.
The demonstration of leisure requires skill. Especially being able to display evidence of past leisure is effective. Veblen mentions “quasi-scholarly and quasi-artistic accomplishments" and knowledge of things that do have any direct functional value. Veblen lists the knowledge of dead languages, of correct spelling, of household art, of the latest fashion, furniture, gadgets and the knowledge of games, sports and fancy-bred animals such as dogs and race horses. Knowledge of such things shows that one has not spent one’s time in industrial employment, but can afford to engage in unproductive expenditures of time, thus enhancing one’s monetary reputation.
Apart from demonstrating leisure, Veblen pointed out that showy consumption is a second tool in the race for reputability. For this he coined the term conspicuous consumption, his most famous legacy. Whereas the demonstration of leisure often still requires a level of subtlety, conspicuous consumption requires no sophistication and provides more instant gratification. Both the consumption as well as the communication effect provide benefits—a double gain.
Especially in India where inequality is so pronounced, the attractiveness of the possibility that one can become a leisuring royal by earning money must be intoxicating for many. The idea that one can be relieved from the struggle for subsistence, the humiliation of being invisible and the pain of everyday life, which is often just a parade of problem after problem, can be hypnotizing. The leisure class must be living in a dream—the Indian Dream—that is often displayed in Indian whisky commercials.
Which brings us to the darker side of pecuniary honour, called status anxiety by the wonderful English philosopher Alain de Botton in his book of that title. “Status anxiety," says De Botton, “is the worry, so pernicious as to be capable of ruining extended stretches of our lives, that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society and that we may as a result be stripped of dignity and respect." The leisure class worries it loses its leisure or is not honourable enough.
If the rich suffer from status anxiety and the poor from deprivation, the sweet spot seems to be in the middle class. Currently, despite everything, there are few places where the middle class has so much reason for material optimism as India.
Tjaco Walvis is the managing director of brand consulting
and advertising agency THEY India, and a speaker at the Outstanding Speakers’ Bureau. He writes a fortnightly column on the softer cultural aspects of marketing that often tend to be ignored by marketers.
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