Faster and Faster with Nowhere to Go

I find Veblen's take on Theory of the Leisure Class especially interesting at a time when American society is so driven by efficiency in everything we do. What we define as success has been shrunken down to whatever is the most efficient way to get things done. We give enormous support to fast-food companies to make our food faster, pay thousands of dollars to make our computers faster, and we can't even fathom the idea of not having a car to get ourselves places the fastest way possible. Family I visited in Europe over the summer was shocked to hear that we have coffee to-go, something that other countries consider a way to sit down, relax, and chat while we are just so focused on go go go.

With a society so fixed on efficiency, the fact that we regard evidence of "extravagant expenditures" of time, money, and resources as beautiful solely because they are wasteful seems almost paradoxical. The fastest cars, the fastest phones, the fastest computers, the fastest kitchen appliances are all still the most expensive and yet things such as edged lawns, elaborate decorating styles, and high standards of cleanness area all things that use this precious time that we are endlessly trying to eliminate from our daily lifestyles. No matter how fast and glorious the iPhone 6 is, millions of people will undoubtedly rush to buy the new iPhone7 as soon as it reaches store, not because their iPhone 6 is not fast enough for them, but because it is no longer fast enough for the ever changing society that convinces us that our iPhone 6 is not good enough. It seems that we are so structured on Veblen's idea of "conspicuous waste" with a false sense of "conspicuous leisure."