because it brings a gain to the employers." This also holds true for the industrial workers engaged in the industrial process under business management. The wages paid to these workmen are "competitively adjusted on grounds of the vendibility of the product", which is determined not by the serviceability of the product but by the aim to make a profitable sale. Veblen claims that business instincts result in waste and "predation" that serve to enhance the social status of those who could benefit from predatory claims to goods and services. Work that is, on the whole, useless or detrimental to the community at large may be as gainful to the business man and to the workmen whom he employs as work that contributes substantially to the aggregate livelihood.Veblen's Theory of Business Enterprise became a critique on the relationship between "business" and industry itself, as far as it dealt with social and technological progress due to the former's reasonable primary motivations revolving around the maximization of profits. According to Veblen, this maximization of profits tended to be executed through the elimination of competition, and competitive behaviors that were outside of the natural market. However, the relationship between “business” and “industry” was uneven as the latter could continue production without the need of the former disrupting the natural flow, in order to maximize profits, leading to a new economic system. However, Veblen himself did at no point openly state support for any one type of economic system such as socialism, though he was in favor of state-owned industry. Significance Veblen's ideas and his work has been considered to maintain itself as being highly influential, and has been cited numerous times in articles, and books in support of economic revolutions as well as changes. These particular works cite both Veblen's theory of the leisure class, as well as business enterprise in order to support their arguments. Many have categorized Veblen's ideas in The Theory of Business Enterprise as being supportive of Marxist ideals, though Veblen himself was openly distant from comparing or aligning himself with the latter. However both economists are considered to be believers of “technological determinism” believing that it is technological improvements that dictate social roles, as well as behaviors in the modern era. Though their individual takes on the magnitude and effects of it, differ substantially. See also The Theory of the Leisure Class References External links The Theory of Business