Summary of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Wealth is not without its advantages, but it is also the enemy of understanding. The poor man has always had a clear understanding of his problem and its solution: he hasn’t enough and he needs more. The rich man can assume a much greater variety of ills and he will be less certain of their solution.
#2 The first task is to see the way our economic attitudes are rooted in the poverty, inequality, and economic peril of the past. Then we must examine the devices and arguments by which we have managed to maintain an association with the older ideas, which stemmed from a world where nearly all were poor.
#3 This essay is not an angry one. It does not lack in that beguiling modesty which is so much in fashion in social comment. It contains many negative thoughts, and they cannot but strike a discordant note in a world of positive thinking.
#4 The problems of an affluent world that does not understand itself may be serious, but they are not as serious as those of a poor world where the simple exigencies of poverty preclude the luxury of misunderstanding.

Sujets

• Economic history

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 28 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669372950
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20 Insights from Chapter 21 Insights from Chapter 22 Insights from Chapter 23 Insights from Chapter 24 Insights from Chapter 25
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Wealth is not without its advantages, but it is also the enemy of understanding. The poor man has always had a clear understanding of his problem and its solution: he hasn’t enough and he needs more. The rich man can assume a much greater variety of ills and he will be less certain of their solution.

#2

The first task is to see the way our economic attitudes are rooted in the poverty, inequality, and economic peril of the past. Then we must examine the devices and arguments by which we have managed to maintain an association with the older ideas, which stemmed from a world where nearly all were poor.

#3

This essay is not an angry one. It does not lack in that beguiling modesty which is so much in fashion in social comment. It contains many negative thoughts, and they cannot but strike a discordant note in a world of positive thinking.

#4

The problems of an affluent world that does not understand itself may be serious, but they are not as serious as those of a poor world where the simple exigencies of poverty preclude the luxury of misunderstanding.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The first requirement for an understanding of contemporary economic and social life is a clear view of the relation between events and the ideas which interpret them. Economic and social phenomena are so forbidding that they provide little hard testing of what exists and what does not.

#2

The Conventional Wisdom is the set of accepted ideas that are common among most people. It is highly predictable, and people typically accept it because it is convenient and self-enhancing.

#3

The conventional wisdom is not the property of any political group. It is expressed on all levels of sophistication, and it is extremely difficult to challenge the framework itself.

#4

The hallmark of the conventional wisdom is acceptability. It has the approval of those to whom it is addressed. It is a prerogative of academic, public or business position. The high public official is required to articulate the conventional wisdom.

#5

The expounding of the conventional wisdom is the prerogative of business success. And it is not only the privilege but also the obligation of the businessman to speak on business policy and economics, as well as the role of government in the society.

#6

The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas, but the march of events. The conventional wisdom accommodates itself to the world that it is meant to interpret, but not to the audience’s view of the world. As events move on, the conventional wisdom is always at risk of obsolescence.

#7

The balanced budget was traditionally the sine qua non of sound and sensible management of the public purse. However, the reality has changed over time. The rule requiring a balanced budget was designed for governments that were inherently or recurrently irresponsible on fiscal matters.

#8

The balanced budget was still important, however, circumstances had already triumphed over the conventional wisdom. By the second year of the Hoover administration, the budget was irretrievably out of balance.

#9

The man of conventional wisdom is not an object of pity. He has come to good terms with life. He can think of himself as socially elect, for society in fact accords him the applause he seeks.

#10

The conventional wisdom is a system of thought that avoids accommodation to circumstances until change is dramatically forced upon it. It is inherently conservative, and it yields not to the attack of other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

The wealth of national communities began to show a steady and persistent improvement around the eighteenth century, when the productivity of an economy based on agriculture and household industry was no longer limited by its inherent limits.

#2

Economic ideas began to take their modern form in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as the conditions of life began to improve for the few rather than the many.

#3

Adam Smith, the first great figure in the central economic tradition, was a hopeful figure. He believed that an advancing national community would be enriched by its members, and that the distribution between merchants, manufacturers, and landlords would benefit the latter. But he did not believe that the income of the masses would ever rise above the minimum level necessary for the survival of the race.

#4