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The Affluent Society
John Kenneth Galbraith
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The Affluent Society
John Kenneth Galbraith
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About This Book
The classic by the renowned economist: "One of those rare works that forces a nation to re-examine its values" ( The New York Times ). One of the New York Public Library's "Books of the Century" Hailed as a "masterpiece" ( St. Louis Post-Dispatch ), this examination of the "economics of abundance" cuts to the heart of what economic security means (and doesn't mean) and lays bare the hazards of individual and societal complacence about economic inequity. The book that introduced the phrase "conventional wisdom" to our vernacular, The Affluent Society is as timely today as when it was first published. "Warrants careful reading by every thoughtful person." — The Christian Science Monitor
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Footnotes
* Note the reference to men. That is the pattern throughout the book, too pervasive for ready recasting. As an early supporter of the women’s movement, this I would now change if I were beginning anew.
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1 Clarence B. Randall, A Creed for Free Enterprise (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1952), pp. 3, 5.
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2 “Tenth Philosophical Letter.” Quoted by Henri See, Modern Capitalism (New York: Adelphi, 1928), p. 87.
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3 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956), p. 232.
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1 J. M. Keynes, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” Essays in Persuasion (London: Macmillan, 1931), p. 360.
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2 E. H. Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins, “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables, Compared with Builders’ Wage Rates.” Economica, New Series; Vol. XXIII, No. 92 (November 1956).
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3 I have used the phrase “central tradition” to denote the main current of ideas in descent from Smith. The more common reference to the “classical tradition” is ruled out by a difference of opinion, in my view, a rather futile one, as to whether classical economics should or should not be considered to have ended with John Stuart Mill and J. E. Cairnes. Another possible reference is to the orthodox tradition. But this, by implication, excludes those like Keynes who, though working in the same current of ideas, have taken sharp issue with accepted conclusions.
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4 Wealth of Nations, Ch. VIII. (There are so many editions of this famous work that it seems idle to cite the pages of the particular edition one happens to use.)
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5 Wealth of Nations, Ch. VIII.
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6 Wealth of Nations, Ch. VIII. Smith observes that this was written in 1773 before “the commencement of the late disturbances,” meaning the American Revolution.
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7 Alexander Gray, The Development of Economic Doctrine (London: Longmans, Green, 1931), p. 163.
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8 Letter to Malthus, October 9, 1820. In The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. by Piero Sraffa (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1951), Vol. VIII, p. 278.
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9 Letter to Malthus, Vol. I, p. 78.
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10 Letter to Malthus, Vol. I, p. 411.
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11 Letter to Malthus, Vol. I, p. 93.
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12 Letter to Malthus, Vol. I, p. 105.
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13 Letter to Malthus, Vol. II, p. 117.
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1 Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 8th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1927), p. 577. The highly infelicitous expression is exceptional in Marshall.
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2 F. W. Taussig, Principles of Economics, 3d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1936), p. 223. The first edition was published in 1911.
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3 G. J. Stigler, “The Economics of Minimum Wage Legislation,” American Economic Review, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (lune 1946), p. 358.
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4 New York Times, March 4, 1957.
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5 Marshall, Principles of Economics, p. 714.
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6 Taussig, Principles of Economics, p. 207.
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7 I have so observed at more length in American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952, 1956), especially Chapter II.
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8 Marshall, Principles of Economics, p. 8.
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9 have also dealt with this source of uneasiness in American Capitalism.
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10 J. A. Schumpeter, Essays, ed. by Richard V. Clemence (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1951), p. 117. This essay was originally published in 1934 in The Economics of the Recovery Program (New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill). The italics are in the original.
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1 Quoted by Alexander Gray, The Development of Economic Doctrine (London: Longmans, Green, 1931), p. 256.
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2 See Joseph Dorfman, The Economic Mind in American Civilization, 1606–1865 (New York: Viking, 1946), p. 804.
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3 Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Fiftieth Anniversary ed. (New York: Robert Shalkenbach Foundation, 1933), p. 5.
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4 Progress and Poverty, p. 9.
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5 A case might be made for the influence of three other men who were generally outside the central tradition; namely, Simon N. Patten (1852–1922), John R. Commons (1862–1945), and Wesley C. Mitchell (1874–1948). However, Patten, a singularly interesting and original figure, has joined Carey in the neglect reserved for American heretics. Commons and Mitchell, as a matter of principle or method, largely avoided any overall theoretical formulation of man’s economic prospect and hence contributed little to the attitudes with which we are here concerned.
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6 Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise, 1932 ed. (New York: Scribner), P. 234.
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7 The conclusions sketched above are principally developed in The Theory of Business Enterprise. The quote is on p. 183.
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8 Originally published in 1899. There is a later edition, to which I contributed an introduction, published in 1973 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).
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9 The Theory of the Leisure Class, p. 41.
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10 This is a criticism which, I think, can fairly be made of Professor Henry Steele Commager. Cf. his discussion of Veblen in The American Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), pp. 227–246.
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11 David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy (Cambridge, England: University Press for the Royal Economic Society, 1951), pp. 107–108.
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12 Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (New York: D. Appleton, 1865), p. 413.
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13 Herbert Spencer, Principles of Ethics, Vol. II (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1897), p. 260.
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14 Lochner v. New York, 1904.
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15 Quoted by Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 31.
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16 William Graham Sumner, Essays in Political and Social Science (New York: Henry Holt, 1885), p. 85.
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17 Quoted by Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought, p. 45.
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1 Karl Marx, Capital (London: william Gliesher, 1918), pp. 660–661.
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2 Quoted in Capital, p. 664.
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3 Marx’s explanation of the business cycle is scattered through his work and is in some respects, as Professor Schumpeter has observed, rather casual. This summary owes much to Joan Robinson’s indispensable book, An Essay on Marxian Economics (London: Macmillan, 1952).
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4 I should, perhaps, remind the reader that I am here concerned with a characterization of the Marxian position and of its impact on attitudes and not with a critique. Marxian critiques are still very, very long.
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5 Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto.
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6 Communist Manifesto.
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7 Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism ands Democracy, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper, 1947), p. 21.
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8 John Strachey, The Coming Struggle for Power, 4th ed. (London: Gollancz, 1934), p. 8.
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9 Arthur Salter, Recovery: The Second Effort (London: G. Bell ...