这是凡勃伦《有闲阶级论 ：关于制度的经济研究》第五章中的一些精彩片段。
文献来源：
Veblen, T. 1899. The theory of the leisure class: an economic study in the evolution of institutions. New York : Macmillan.
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在任何现代社会中，大多数人（the great body of the people）之所以会在超出身体舒适（physical comfort）所需之外进行支出（expenditure），其直接原因（proximate ground）
并不是要有意识地努力（a conscious effort）去在可见消费（visible consumption）的昂贵程度（expensiveness）上胜过别人，
而主要是因为他们希望（a desire）在所消费商品的数量与等级（amount and grade of goods consumed）上达到一种约定俗成的体面标准（conventional standard of decency）。
这种欲望（desire）并不受一个严格不变的标准（rigidly invariable standard）所支配——这个标准是必须达到的，但超过这个标准之后，就没有动力（incentive）再去追求了。
For the great body of the people in any modern community, the proximate ground of expenditure in excess of what is required for physical comfort is not a conscious effort to excel in the expensive- ness of their visible consumption, so much as it is a desire to live up to the conventional standard of decency in the amount and grade of goods consumed. This desire is not guided by a rigidly invariable standard, which must be lived up to, and beyond which there is no incentive to go.（Veblen，1899：102）
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这表明，通常指导我们努力（commonly guides our efforts）的支出标准（standard of expenditure）并不是已经达到的平均的、普通的支出（average, ordinary expenditure），而是一种刚好超出我们能力范围（just beyond our reach）的消费理想（ideal of consumption），要达到它需要费些力气（strain）。
其动机（motive）是竞赛（emulation）——即歧视性对比（an invidious comparison）的刺激（stimulus），这种对比促使我们超越（outdo）那些我们习惯上视为与自己同类（classing ourselves）的人。
实质上，同样的命题（proposition）体现在一句常言（commonplace remark）中：每个阶级都羡慕并竞相仿效（envies and emulates）社会等级（social scale）中紧挨其上的一级（next above），而很少同低于（below）自己的阶级或远远领先于自己（considerably in advance）的阶级相比较。
换句话说，我们在支出（expenditure）上的体面标准（standard of decency），如同在其他竞赛目的（other ends of emulation）上一样，是由那些在声誉（reputability）上紧挨我们之上的人的惯例（usage）设定的（set）；
以这种方式向上追溯，尤其是在阶级界限（class distinctions）有些模糊（vague）的共同体中，所有关于声誉与体面的准则（canons of reputability and decency）以及所有消费标准（standards of consumption），都会通过难以察觉的渐变（insensible gradations）追溯到最高的社会与金钱阶级（highest social and pecuniary class）——即富裕的有闲阶级（wealthy leisure class）——的惯例和思维习惯（usages and habits of thought）。
This suggests that the standard of expenditure which commonly guides our efforts is not the average, ordinary expenditure already achieved; it is an ideal of consumption that lies just beyond our reach, or to reach which requires some strain. The motive is emulation—the stimulus of an invidious comparison which prompts us to outdo those with whom we are in the habit of classing ourselves. Substantially the same proposition is expressed in the commonplace remark that each class envies and emulates the class next above it in the social scale, while it rarely compares itself with those below or with those who are considerably in advance. That is to say, in other words, our standard of decency in expenditure, as in other ends of emulation, is set by the usage of those next above us in reputability; until, in this way, especially in any community where class distinctions are somewhat vague, all canons of reputability and decency, and all standards of consumption, are traced back by insensible gradations to the usages and habits of thought of the highest social and pecuniary class—the wealthy leisure class.（Veblen，1899：103-104）
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很明显，这些支出准则（canons of expenditure）在决定任何共同体（community）和任何阶级（class）的生活水平（standard of living）方面有很大影响。
同样明显的是，在任何时期或在任何特定社会高度（social altitude）上通行的生活水准（standard of living），反过来又会在很大程度上决定（have much to say）荣誉性支出（honorific expenditure）所采取的形式（forms），以及这种“更高”需要（“higher” need）将在多大程度（the degree）上支配（dominate）一个民族的消费（consumption）。
在这方面，公认的生活水准（accepted standard of living）所施加的控制（control）主要是消极性质的（a negative character）；它几乎仅仅是为了防止从一度已经成为习惯（habitual）的炫耀性支出规模（scale of conspicuous expenditure）倒退（recession）。
It is evident that these canons of expenditure have much to say in determining the standard of living for any community and for any class. It is no less evident that the standard of living which prevails at any time or at any given social altitude will in its turn have much to say as to the forms which honorific expenditure will take, and as to the degree to which this “higher” need will dominate a people’s consumption. In this respect the control exerted by the accepted stan- dard of living is chiefly of a negative character; it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that has once become habitual. （Veblen，1899：105）
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除自我保存本能（instinct of self-preservation）之外，竞赛倾向（propensity for emulation）很可能是严格意义上的经济动机（economic motives proper）中最强烈（strongest）、最活跃且最持久（most alert and persistent）的一种。
在工业共同体（industrial community）中，这种竞赛倾向（propensity for emulation）以金钱竞赛（pecuniary emulation）的形式表现出来；
而就当今西方文明共同体（Western civilised communities）而言，这实际上等于（equivalent）说它是以某种形式（form）的炫耀性浪费（conspicuous waste）表现出来的。
因此，一旦最基本的物质需要（the most elementary physical wants）得到满足，炫耀性浪费的需要（need of conspicuous waste）便随时准备吸收（absorb）共同体工业效率（industrial efficiency）或商品产出（output of goods）的任何增长（any increase）。
在现代条件下（modern conditions），若没有出现这种结果（this result），造成这种出入（discrepancy）的原因通常在于，个人财富（individual’s wealth）的增长速度（rate of increase）太快，以致支出习惯（habit of expenditure）跟不上；或者也可能是相关个人（individual in question）将增量（increment）的炫耀性消费（conspicuous consumption）推迟到日后——通常是为了增强所打算进行的总支出（aggregate expenditure）的壮观效果（spectacular effect）。
随着工业效率（industrial efficiency）的提高使得以较少劳动（less labour）获得生计手段（means of livelihood）成为可能，共同体中勤劳成员（industrious members）的精力（energies）便转向在炫耀性支出（conspicuous expenditure）中追求更高结果（higher result），而不是放松到更舒适的节奏（more comfortable pace）。
随着工业效率（industrial efficiency）提高并使得更轻的负担（lighter strain）成为可能，这种压力（strain）并未减轻（not lightened），而是产出的增量（increment of output）被用来满足这种需要（this want），而这种需要是无限扩张的（indefinitely expansible），其方式通常在经济理论（economic theory）中被归属于（imputed）更高需要或精神需要（higher or spiritual wants）。
主要由于生活水准（standard of living）中这一因素（this element）的存在，约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒（J. S. Mill）才能说：“迄今为止，所有已作出的机械发明（mechanical inventions）是否减轻了任何人的日常劳苦（day’s toil），仍然是值得怀疑的（questionable）。”
【注】一些中文译本将“J. S. Mill”译为“詹姆斯·穆勒”。实际上，应是“约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒”，这句话出自约翰·穆勒在1848年《政治经济学原理及其在社会哲学上的应用》第一版第二卷第312页。
With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper. In an industrial community this propensity for emulation expresses itself in pecuniary emulation; and this, so far as regards the Western civilised communities of the present, is virtually equivalent to saying that it expresses itself in some form of conspicuous waste. The need of conspicuous waste, therefore, stands ready to absorb any increase in the community’s industrial efficiency or output of goods, after the most elementary physical wants have been provided for. Where this result does not follow, under modern conditions, the reason for the discrepancy is commonly to be sought in a rate of increase in the individual’s wealth too rapid for the habit of expenditure to keep abreast of it; or it may be that the individual in question defers the conspicuous consumption of the increment to a later date—ordinarily with a view to heightening the spectacular effect of the aggregate expenditure contemplated. As increased industrial efficiency makes it possible to procure the means of livelihood with less labour, the energies of the industrious mem- bers of the community are bent to the compassing of a higher result in conspicuous expenditure, rather than slackened to a more com- fortable pace. The strain is not lightened as industrial efficiency increases and makes a lighter strain possible, but the increment of output is turned to use to meet this want, which is indefinitely expansible, after the manner commonly imputed in economic theory to higher or spiritual wants. It is owing chiefly to the presence of this element in the standard of living that J. S. Mill was able to say that“hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” （Veblen，1899：110-111）
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一个人所属的共同体（community）或阶级（class）中公认的支出标准（accepted standard of expenditure），在很大程度上决定了他的生活水平（standard of living）将会是怎样的。
它（公认的支出标准）直接做到这一点：通过使其自身作为正当、良善（right and good）之物而受到这个人的常识（common sense）的认可，其途径是这个人习惯性地对它加以审视（habitually contemplating it）并同化（assimilating）它所属的那套生活方案（scheme of life）；
但它也间接地做到这一点：大众坚持（popular insistence）要求遵守（conformity）公认的支出尺度（accepted scale of expenditure），将其视为得体（propriety）之事，否则就会遭受轻视（disesteem）与排斥（ostracism）。
The accepted standard of expenditure in the community or in the class to which a person belongs largely determines what his standard of living will be. It does this directly by commending itself to his common sense as right and good, through his habitually contemplating it and assimilating the scheme of life in which it belongs; but it does so also indirectly through popular insistence on conformity to the accepted scale of expenditure as a matter of propriety, under pain of disesteem and ostracism. （Veblen，1899：111）