The Affluent Society: Updated with a New Introduction by the Author - Softcover

Galbrath, John K

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140285199 ISBN 13: 9780140285192

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1999

Synopsis

'A compelling challenge to conventional thought' - "New York Times". In this newly updated edition of his classic text on the "economics of abundance", Galbraith lays bare the hazards of individual and social complacency about economic inequality. It is as relevant now, with the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, as when it was first published 40 years ago. Galbraith challenges why we worship work and productivity when so many of the goods we produce are superfluous, and why we grudge spending on public works while ignoring extravagance in the private sector. "The Affluent Society" exemplifies Galbraith's wit, clarity and eloquence of prose.

About this title

Review:

Conventional wisdom has it that John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society spawned the neoliberalism we see in Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and other world leaders. The economist's prose, lofty but still easily manageable, laid down the gauntlet for the post-cold war class struggle that was still far in the future in 1958. Galbraith saw the widening gap between the richest and the poorest as an emergent threat to economic stability, and proposed significant investment in parks, transportation, education, and other public amenities--what we now call infrastructure--to ameliorate these differences and postpone depression and revolution indefinitely. Widely criticized by conservatives and libertarians wary of public expenditures or increased government influence, Galbraith still influences liberal and neoliberal thinking. He has acknowledged that his work, like that of most social scientists, contains flaws (like his dire prediction of an out-of-control unemployment and inflation spiral that petered out in the 1980's), but much of it remains fresh and true even today. Four years before Silent Spring, he wrote about the consumerist blight that threatened our wild lands equally as much as our cities; his hoped-for increase in environmental awareness has grown significantly in recent years. Whether you support the political implementations of his views, experiencing his writing is important to put those views in context. More than this, though, it is an honest pleasure to read such original ideas so well expressed. --Rob Lightner

About the Author:

John Kenneth Galbraith has written 30 books, spanning four decades. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Harvard, Oxford, the University of Paris and Moscow University. In 1998, he celebrated his 90th birthday. He continues to work as the Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140285199
• ISBN 13: 9780140285192
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 288