CodalSearch this book — or all of Codal…⌘K
nydus/The Theory of Business EnterprisePublic

Thorstein Veblen examines the modern industrial system as a structure defined by the machine process and investment for profit. He analyzes how business enterprise and the pursuit of financial gain serve as the primary forces directing contemporary economic organization.

Page 50 of 422
Table of Contents

Business Enterprise

why pncUcally aU the ore beds and iron aod Rteel norks io the oomitTf are not worked as one collective enterprise. It is equally evident that each correlatiooB of noric as are prannilted by the business coalitions already effected in this field have resulted in a great economy of production, and that the Eailare to carry these coalitions farther meaiu an annual waste running up into the miUians. Both the eoonomles lo etrect«d and the waste so incurred are to be Bet down to the account of the bnsinew managers who have gone so far and have failed to go farther. The like is obvious as regards many other branches of indoitiy and groapa of induatiiea.

dealings with one another and with the interests of the community there runs a sense of equity, fair dealing, and workmanlike integrity ; and in an uncertain degree this hent discountenances gain that is got at an undue cost to others, or without rendering some colorable equivalent. Business men are also, in a roeasiu-e, guided by the ambition to effect a creditable improvement in the industrial processes which their business traffic touches. These sentimental factors in business exercise something of a constraint, varying greatly from one person to another, [] but not measurable in its aggregate results. The ' careers of most of the illustrious business men show the presence of some salutary constraint of this kind. Not infrequently an excessive sensitiveness of this kind leads to a withdrawal from business, or from certain forms of business which may appeal to a vivid fancy as peculiarly dishonest or peculiarly detrimental to the community.^ Such

IllmtratiTe inatanceB will readily suggest themBelves, Many a bUBlnesB man turns by preference to sometbing leas dubious than the distilling of whistey or the sale of deleterious housebold remedies. They prefer not to ose deleterious adulteraots, even within the limila

50