The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
From what has just been said it appears that, if we retain the classical
division of economic theory into Production, Distribution, and
Consumption, the pecuniary employments do not properly fall under the
first of these divisions, Production, if that term is to retain the
meaning commonly assigned to it. In an earlier and less specialised
organisation of economic life, particularly, the undertaker frequently
performs the work of a foreman or a technological expert, as well as the
work of business management. Hence in most discussions of his work and
his theoretical relations his occupation is treated as a composite one.
The technological side of his composite occupation has even given a name
to his gains (wages of superintendence), as if the undertaker were
primarily a master-workman. The distinction at this point has been drawn
between classes of persons instead of between classes of employments;
with the result that the evident necessity of discussing his
technological employment under production has given countenance to the
endeavor to dispose of the undertaker's business activity under the same
head. This endeavor has, of course, not wholly succeeded.
In the later development, the specialisation of work in the economic
field has at this point progressed so far, and the undertaker now in
many cases comes so near being occupied with business affairs alone, to
the exclusion of technological direction and supervision, that, with
this object lesson before us, we no longer have the same difficulty in
drawing a distinction between business and industrial employments. And
even in the earlier days of the doctrines, when the aim was to dispose
of the undertaker's work under the theoretical head of Production, the
business side of his work persistently obtruded itself for discussion in
the books and chapters given to Distribution and Exchange. The course
taken by the later theoretical discussion of the entrepreneur, leaves no
question but that the characteristic fact about his work is that he is a
business man, occupied with pecuniary affairs.
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