In his early years, Mister Galbraith was greatly influenced by the economist Thorstein Veblen and his book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class."
VOA: special.2011.05.01
Economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen took a crack at it in The Theoryof the LeisureClass, the 1899 classic that wryly posited the theoryof "conspicuous consumption, " his phrase for keeping up with the Joneses.