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AP U.S. History Exam 2.29 166 Views
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AP U.S. History Exam 2.29. Those in Veblen's "leisure class" justified their wealth by citing the theory of...what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by conspicuous consumption,
- 00:07
the sickness that makes you crave attention.
- 00:10
All right.
- 00:11
[ mumbles ]
Full Transcript
- 00:16
All right, Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899.
- 00:19
All right, and the question:
- 00:20
Those in Veblen's leisure class justified their wealth
- 00:23
by citing the theory of... what?
- 00:25
And here are your potential answers.
- 00:27
[ mumbles ] Huh. All right.
- 00:31
Well, members of the leisure class were not shy about money,
- 00:34
but because they had so much of it compared to the rest of society,
- 00:38
they often needed justification for, uh...
- 00:40
just how wealthy they were.
- 00:42
So did the leisure class justify their wealth
- 00:44
by citing the theory of A - conspicuous consumption?
- 00:48
Though it sounds like it would be used to describe a competitive year,
- 00:52
conspicuous consumption referred to those who displayed
- 00:55
their wealth by acquiring luxury goods.
- 00:58
Anyway, it ain't A.
- 01:00
Could the leisure class have justified their wealth
- 01:02
by citing the C - cult of domesticity?
- 01:06
Well, huh, the cult of domesticity was a push-back
- 01:09
against women working in factories,
- 01:11
not a justification of wealth. So get rid of C.
- 01:14
Did the leisure class justify their financial status by citing D -
- 01:18
social gospel?
- 01:20
Well, actually, social gospel was a movement aimed at
- 01:23
helping those trapped at the other end of the financial spectrum.
- 01:26
So it's not D.
- 01:28
That means the leisure class justified their wealth through B -
- 01:30
Social Darwinism.
- 01:32
The leisure class preferred to justifiy their wealth by attributing it
- 01:35
to their natural strength as businesspeople.
- 01:37
This idea was supported by Social Darwinism,
- 01:40
which applied the idea of survival of the fittest
- 01:43
in an economic and social sphere.
- 01:46
So B is the correct answer.
- 01:47
Though lower classes saw this justification as
- 01:50
pretty convenient, the wealthy relied on Social Darwinism
- 01:53
to help explain the origin of their...
- 01:56
specie.
- 01:57
[ moo ]
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