Mr. Veblen’s Canon of Pecuniary Efficiency means that many persons conceive of efficiency largely in terms of price. The person who can induce his fellows to pay him well is accounted efficient and serviceable.[XXIII-67] The man who gains much wealth at little cost is rated high in his neighbor’s esteem. The investor who at the turn of his hand reaps $100,000 in a stock or bond deal is praised widely. In other words, there is a common tendency to rate people high in direct proportion to the amount of money that they are able to extract from the aggregate product. The Canon of Bellicoseness refers to the enthusiasm for war which the hereditary leisure class displays. The very wealthy, not being obliged to work for a living, find that time drags. Therefore, they seek excitement and relief from ennui, and find these conditions in various things, especially in war. The Canon of Pecuniary Education covers the tendency to demand “practical” education, which, upon examination, is education that will guarantee individual success. “Success,” for which education is to fit young people, turns out to be, in the eyes of the practical man, a pecuniary success. “Practical” means useful for private gain. The test that many persons would give to a course in education is this: Will it help one to get an income? The Canon of Pecuniary Thinking denotes that many occupations lead to habits of pecuniary thought. For numbers of people the beginning and end of their more serious thought is of a pecuniary nature. The Canon of Machine Process Thinking is that mechanical employments produce a type of thinking that is based more or less on material cause and effect. The Machine knows neither morality nor dignity nor prescriptive right. The machine process laborers, working in a world of impersonal cause and effect, “are in danger of losing the point of view of sin.” Professor Veblen has developed the concept of the instinct of workmanship at considerable length. According to this contention, it is natural for individuals to do, to construct, to achieve, to work. Through activity the individual expresses himself and, in so doing, develops, and attains happiness. Every individual is a center of unfolding impulsive activity; he is possessed of a taste for effective work.[XXIII-68] Labor acquires a character of irksomeness by virtue of the indignity that is falsely imputed to it by a hereditary leisure class.[XXIII-69] It was the instinct of workmanship which brought the life of mankind from the brute to the human plan. The contributions of Mr. Veblen to social thought are always of a thought-provoking nature. Sometimes they give rise to invidious comparisons, often they antagonize, but as a rule, they are unique. No brief reference such as is given in the foregoing paragraphs can do justice to Mr. Veblen’s pungent criticisms of societal foibles.