Relevant Philosophy

Given this story circulated today by the Bloomberg News service, the words of Thorstein Veblen written in 1899 in The Theory of the Leisure Class have particular relevance:

"The institution of a leisure class hinders cultural
development immediately (1) by the inertia proper
of the class itself, (2) through its prescriptive example
of conspicuous waste and of conservatism, and
(3) indirectly through that system of unequal
distribution of wealth and sustenance on
which the institution itself rests."