“In his book, The Theory of the Leisure Class — published in 1899, at the apogee of the Gilded Age — Thorstein Veblen famously argued that much of the behavior of his era’s elite was driven not by the desire to enjoy life but by the desire to impress others.” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-theory...
Collapsing norms, cage matches, and a republic in danger
