The Affluent Society
John Kenneth Galbraith's 1958 book on private wealth and public poverty in postwar America.
At a glance
Key ideas
The central tradition is out of date, Production as the wrong test, The dependence effect …
See all 6Criticism
Friedrich Hayek, Laissez-faire critics
See all 2Connections
John Kenneth Galbraith and The Other America
See all 2
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Galbraith argues that economics built for an age of poverty does not fit an affluent society.
- Production has become the measure of success for left and right alike, but much demand is created by advertising.
- The private sector grows rich while public services and infrastructure are starved.
- He calls for public investment, especially in education, paid for by consumption taxes.
Why it matters
- It sparked wide public debate, popularised "conventional wisdom", and is the classic statement of private affluence beside public neglect.
Key facts
- Author
- John Kenneth Galbraith1
- Published
- 1958; fourth revised edition 19841
- Working title
- Why the Poor Are Poor, changed to The Affluent Society at his wife's suggestion2
- Recognition
- No. 46 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language non-fiction books of the 20th century1
- Followed by
- The New Industrial State (1967), which expanded many of its ideas1
Key ideas
-
The central tradition is out of date1
Smith, Ricardo and Malthus wrote for a world of scarcity, not one producing luxuries.
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Production as the wrong test1
GDP counts more schooling and more television sets as the same kind of thing.
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The dependence effect1
"Wants are increasingly created by the process by which they are satisfied."
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Case and insular poverty1
Poverty of a particular person, and islands where nearly everyone is poor.
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The New Class1
Teachers, professors, surgeons and engineers, whose growth he wanted to encourage.
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Invest in education1
The book ends on a society's need to draw on its resources of intelligence and education.
Criticism
-
Friedrich Hayek1
Replied in "The Non-Sequitur of the 'Dependence Effect'" (1961).
-
Laissez-faire critics2
Drew sharp criticism from free-market economists from the start, Milton Friedman among them.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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