Watchful waiting: Veblen’s understanding of businessmen

Chapter 8 of The Worldly Philosophers

To Veblen, businessmen were essentially predators, however much they or their apologists might drape their activities in the elaborate rationale of supply and demand or marginal utility. Later, in an essay on “The Captain of Industry,” Veblen described the businessman as he really saw him; the following passage explains what is meant by the phrase “watchful waiting,” which had been used to describe the entrepreneurial function:

Doubtless this form of words, “watchful waiting” will have been employed in the first place to describe the frame of mind of a toad who has reached years of discretion and has found his appointed place along some frequented run where many flies and spiders pass and repass on their way to complete that destiny to which it has pleased an all-seeing and merciful Providence to call them; but by an easy turn of speech it has also been found suitable to describe that mature order of captains of industry who are governed by sound business principles. There is a certain bland sufficiency spread across the face of a toad so circumstanced, while his comely bulk gives assurance of a pyramidal stability of principles. (133)

Comment: We might use some examples from Microsoft to illustrate “watchful waiting”. After WordPerfect was developed, Microsoft develop Word. After Lotus 123 was developed. Microsoft developed Excel. After Netscape was developed, Microsoft developed IE. After OpenAI spent great amount of effort developing ChatGPT, Microsoft bought OenAI.