这是凡勃伦《有闲阶级论》第二章中的一些精彩片段。
文献来源：
Veblen, T. 1899. The theory of the leisure class. New York : Macmillan.
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在文化演进的进程中，有闲阶级（a leisure class）的出现与所有权（ownership）的萌芽几乎同时发生。
这是必然的，因为这两种制度（institutions）都源于同一组经济力量（economic forces）。
在它们发展的初期阶段，它们只不过是社会结构（social structure）同一普遍事实的不同方面。
In the sequence of cultural evolution the emergence of a leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership. This is necessarily the case, for these two institutions result from the same set of economic forces. In the inchoate phase of their development they are but different aspects of the same general facts of social structure.（Veblen，1899：22）
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凡是私有财产制度（private property）存在的地方，即便只是略有发展，经济过程（ economic process）也带有争夺财产（the possession of goods）的斗争（struggle）的性质。
经济理论，尤其是那些坚定奉行现代古典经济学理论（modernised classical doctrines）的经济学家，通常将这种财富争夺（struggle for wealth）解读为本质上（substantially）的生存斗争（a struggle for subsistence）。
毫无疑问，在工业发展的早期低效阶段（the earlier and less efficient phases），财富争夺的性质在很大程度上确实如此。
在所有“自然吝啬（niggardliness of nature）”到人们辛勤劳作（strenuous and unremitting）却只能勉强维持生计（a scanty livelihood）的情况下，财富争夺的性质也同样如此。
然而，在所有进步的社会（progressing communities）中，技术发展（ technological development）都会超越早期阶段。
工业效率（Industrial efficiency）如今已达到相当高的水平（pitch），足以使从事工业生产的人们获得远超（appreciably more than）勉强糊口的收入。
经济理论经常将基于这种新的工业基础（new industrial basis）的财富争夺（the further struggle for wealth）描述为对生活舒适度的追求（a competition for an increase of the comforts of life），主要是对消费商品（the consumption of goods ）所带来的物质舒适度（the physical comforts）的追求。
Wherever the institution of private property is found, even in a slightly developed form, the economic process bears the character of a struggle between men for the possession of goods. It has been customary in economic theory, and especially among those economists who adhere with least faltering to the body of modernised classical doctrines, to construe this struggle for wealth as being substantially a struggle for subsistence. Such is, no doubt, its character in large part during the earlier and less efficient phases of industry. Such is also its character in all cases where the “niggardliness of nature ” is so strict as to afford but a scanty livelihood to the community in return for strenuous and unremitting application to the business of getting the means of subsistence. But in all progressing communities an advance is presently made beyond this early stage of technological development. Industrial efficiency is presently carried to such a pitch as to afford something appreciably more than a bare livelihood to those engaged in the industrial process. It has not been unusual for economic theory to speak of the further struggle for wealth on this new industrial basis as a competition for an increase of the comforts of life，——primarily for an increase of the physical comforts which the consumption of goods affords.（Veblen，1899：24-25）
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但只有从远超其字面意义的角度来看，商品消费（consumption of goods）才能被视为积累（accumulation）的持久动力（the incentive）。
所有权的根源在于竞赛/竞争（emulation）；而这种竞赛动机也持续作用（active）于所有权制度所引起的（ it has given rise ）进一步发展的制度（institution）中，以及所有权制度所触及的社会结构（social structure ）的全部特征（features）的发展中。
拥有财富（The possession of wealth）赋予荣誉（honour），这是一种歧视性区分（invidious distinction）。
消费（the consumption of goods），以及其他任何可能的获取动机（conceivable incentive），尤其是任何财富积累的动机（incentive to the accumulation of wealth），都无法与之相提并论。
But it is only when taken in a sense far removed from its naïve meaning that consumption of goods can be said to afford the incentive from which accumulation invariably proceeds. The motive that lies at the root of ownership is emulation; and the same motive of emulation continues active in the further development of the institution to which it has given rise and in the development of all those features of the social structure which this institution of ownership touches. The possession of wealth confers honour; it is an invidious distinction. Nothing equally cogent can be said for the consumption of goods, nor for any other conceivable incentive to acquisition, and especially not for any incentive to the accumulation of wealth.（Veblen，1899：25-26）
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所有权（ownership）发端并发展成为一种人类社会制度（human institution），其形成基础（grounds）与最低生存需求（subsistence minimum）无关。
居于主导地位的动机（ dominant incentive）从一开始，就是依附于财富之上的歧视性区分（invidious distinction attaching to wealth）；除短暂的特殊情形之外，在后续发展的任何阶段，都没有其他动机夺取过这一首要地位（primacy）。
Ownership began and grew into a human institution on grounds unrelated to the subsistence minimum. The dominant incentive was from the outset the invidious distinction attaching to wealth, and, save temporarily and by exception, no other motive has usurped the primacy at any later stage of the development.（Veblen，1899：26）
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And it is even more to the point that property（财产） now becomes the most easily recognised evidence（最容易识别的证据）of a reputable degree of success（成功的可敬程度） as distinguished from heroic or signal achievement.
It therefore becomes the conventional（惯例） basis of esteem（尊重）.
Its possession in some amount（保有量） becomes necessary in order to any reputable standing（享有名望的社会地位） in the community.
It becomes indispensable（不可或缺的） to accumulate（积累）, to acquire（获取） property, in order to retain one’s good name（维护名望）.
When accumulated goods have in this way once become the accepted badge of efficiency（公认的效率标志）, the possession of wealth（财富的占有） presently（随即） assumes（呈现） the character of an independent and definitive basis of esteem（独立且确定的声望基础这一属性）.
The possession of goods, whether acquired aggressively by one’s own exertion（靠自身努力主动争取） or passively by transmission through inheritance from others（经由他人继承被动获得）, becomes a conventional basis, of reputability（名望的惯例性基础）.
The possession of wealth（财富的占有）, which was at the outset（起初） valued simply as an evidence of efficiency（个人能力的证据）, becomes, in popular apprehension（普遍观念）, itself a meritorious act（一种值得称颂的行为）.
财富如今自身内在就具备尊贵属性，并将荣誉赋予它的占有者。
Wealth is now itself intrinsically honourable and confers honour on its possessor.
经过更进一步的演化分化，经由祖先或其他先辈被动传承而来的财富，随即变得比所有者依靠自身努力获得的财富更为尊贵；但这一差异属于金钱文化演化的较晚阶段，后文将在相应部分加以论述。
By a further refinement, wealth acquired passively by transmission from ancestors or other antecedents presently becomes even more honorific than wealth acquired by the possessor’s own effort; but this distinction belongs at a later stage in the evolution of the pecuniary culture and will be spoken of in its place. （Veblen，1899：28-29）
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就其本质而言，对财富的渴望（the desire for wealth）在任何个体身上都难以得到满足（scarcely be satiated），而对财富的平均或普遍渴望的满足（satiation）显然是不可能的。
无论财富的分配多么广泛、平等或“公平”，社会财富的普遍增长（general increase of the community’s wealth）都无法满足这种需求（need），因为这种需求的根源在于每个人都渴望在财富积累（the accumulation of goods）方面超越他人（excel every one else）。
如果像有时人们所假设的那样，积累财富的动机（the incentive to accumulation）是缺乏生存或物质舒适，那么随着工业效率的提高（the advance of industrial efficiency），一个社会的总体经济需求（the aggregate economic wants）或许会在某个阶段得到满足；但由于这种竞争（struggle）本质上是基于一种歧视性比较（an invidious comparison）而进行的声望竞赛（ a race for reputability），因此不可能达到最终的满足（definitive attainment ）。
In the nature of the case, the desire for wealth can scarcely be satiated in any individual instance, and evidently a satiation of the average or general desire for wealth is out of the question. However widely, or equally, or “fairly,” it may be distributed, no general increase of the community’s wealth can make any approach to satiating this need, the ground of which is the desire of every one to excel every one else in the accumulation of goods. If, as is sometimes assumed, the incentive to accumulation were the want of subsistence or of physical comfort, then the aggregate economic wants of a community might conceivably be satisfied at some point in the advance of industrial efficiency; but since the struggle is substantially a race for reputability on the basis of an invidious comparison, no approach to a definitive attainment is possible.（Veblen，1899：32）
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在促使人们积累财富（accumulate wealth）的各种动机（motives）中，金钱竞赛（pecuniary emulation）这一动机无论在范围（scope）还是强度（intensity）上，仍然占据首要（primacy）地位。
Among the motives which lead men to accumulate wealth, the primacy, both in scope and intensity, therefore, continues to belong to this motive of pecuniary emulation.（Veblen，1899：34）
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在使用“歧视性（invidious）”一词时，或许无需赘言，其目的并非褒扬或贬低（extol or depreciate），也非赞扬或谴责（ commend or deplore）任何被该词所指称的现象。
该词在此仅作技术性解释（a technical sense），指对人进行比较（comparison），以期根据其相对价值（ relative worth or value）（在美学或道德层面 an æsthetic or moral sense）对其进行评级（rating）和分级（grading），从而确定（awarding）并界定（defining）人们自身与他人看待（contemplated）这类心态时，抱持多大程度的自满（the relative degrees of complacency）才算合乎情理（legitimately）。
歧视性比较（An invidious comparison）是一种基于价值（worth）对人进行评估（valuation）的过程。
In making use of the term “invidious,” it may perhaps be unnecessary to remark, there is no intention to extol or depreciate, or to commend or deplore any of the phenomena which the word is used to characterise. The term is used in a technical sense as describing a comparison of persons with a view to rating and grading them in respect of relative worth or value—in an æsthetic or moral sense——and so awarding and defining the relative degrees of complacency with which they may legitimately be contemplated by themselves and by others. An invidious comparison is a process of valuation of persons in respect of worth.（Veblen，1899：34）