Wearing a watch that costs 200 times more than one that does a better job of keeping time says something else, even when it is worn by people who are not governing a relatively poor country. Andrew Carnegie, the richest man of Veblen’s era, was blunt in his moral judgments.
戴一只比能更好计时的手表贵200倍的手表自有其特殊含义，即使戴它的人并没有在治理相对贫穷的国家。凡勃伦时代最富有的人——安德鲁·卡耐基的道德判断相当直率。他有一句名言：“死于富贵，是为死之耻。”