Download or read book The Affluent Society written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Signet. This book was released on 1963-09-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Galbraith's classic on the "economics of abundance" is, in the words of the New York Times, "a compelling challenge to conventional thought." With customary clarity, eloquence, and humor, Galbraith cuts to the heart of what economic security means (and doesn't mean) in today's world and lays bare the hazards of individual and societal complacence about economic inequity. While "affluent society" and "conventional wisdom" (first used in this book) have entered the vernacular, the message of the book has not been so widely embraced--reason enough to rediscover The Affluent Society. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Download or read book The Affluent Society written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Affluent Society Revisited written by Mike Berry and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book revisits John Kenneth Galbraith's classic text The Affluent Society in the context of the background to, and causes of, the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008. Each chapter takes a major theme of Galbraith's book, distils his arguments, and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments, both in developed economies and in the economics discipline. The themes include: inequality, insecurity, inflation, debt, consumer behaviour, financialization, the economic role of government ('social balance'), the power of ideas, the role of power in the economy, and the nature of the good society. It considers the current problems of capitalism and the huge challenges facing democratic governments in tackling them. Written in non-technical language, this book is accessible to students of economics and the social sciences as well as to those who would have read The Affluent Society and the general reader interested in contemporary affairs and public policy.
Download or read book An Affluent Society written by Lawrence Black and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During an election speech in 1957 the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, famously remarked that 'most of our people have never had it so good'. Although taken out of context, this phrase soon came to epitomize the sense of increased affluence and social progress that was prevalent in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, despite the recognition that Britain had moved away from an era of rationing and scarcity, to a new age of choice and plenty, there was simultaneously a parallel feeling that the nation was in decline and being economically outstripped by its international competitors. Whilst the study of Britain's postwar history is a well-trodden path, and the paradox of absolute growth versus relative decline much debated, it is here approached in a fresh and rewarding way. Rather than highlighting economic and industrial 'decline', this volume emphasizes the tremendous impact of rising affluence and consumerism on British society. It explores various expressions of affluence: new consumer goods; shifting social and cultural values; changes in popular expectations of policy; shifting popular political behaviour; changing attitudes of politicians towards the electorate; and the representation of affluence in popular culture and advertising. By focusing on the widespread cultural consequences of increasing levels of consumerism, emphasizing growth over decline and recognizing the rising standards of living enjoyed by most Britons, a new and intriguing window is opened on the complexities of this 'golden age'. Contrasting growing consumer expectations and demands against the anxieties of politicians and economists, this book offers all students of the period a new perspective from which to view post-imperial Britain and to question many conventional historical assumptions.
Download or read book In the Wake of the Affluent Society written by Serge Latouche and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 1993 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New Industrial State written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-29 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings. First published in 1967, The New Industrial State continues to resonate today.
Download or read book The Other America written by Michael Harrington and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1997-08 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.
Download or read book Pursuing Quality of Life written by Leonard Nevarez and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From anxieties over work-life balance and entangling technologies, to celebrations of cool jobs and great places to live, quality of life frames the ways we enhance our lives and legitimate social change today. But how does the idea of quality of life envision the greater good, and what gets lost as a result? This book provides the critical framework for understanding the idea’s contexts and tensions that are conspicuously missing in popular discussions, professional activities, and scholarly research on quality of life. With multiple case studies taken across North America and Europe, it provides a sociological perspective on the contradictory ways we talk about and pursue quality of life in relation to technology, consumerism, family, work, public space, rural ways of life, and ultimately the final years of life. Drawing on contemporary and classical social theory, it provides an incisive account of the historical shifts in developed societies over the last half-century that have transformed our views and pursuits of quality of life. Originally a promise to undertake collective effort and pursue social justice at a moment of unprecedented opportunity, quality of life now enshrines a solipsistic ideal with which to accommodate the storms of market forces and political failure.
Download or read book Creating an Opportunity Society written by Ron Haskins and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans believe economic opportunity is as fundamental a right as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. More concerned about a level playing field for all, they worry less about the growing income and wealth disparity in our country. Creating an Opportunity Society examines economic opportunity in the United States and explores how to create more of it, particularly for those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill propose a concrete agenda for increasing opportunity that is cost effective, consistent with American values, and focuses on improving the lives of the young and the disadvantaged. They emphasize individual responsibility as an indispensable basis for successful policies and programs. The authors recommend a three-pronged approach to create more opportunity in America: • Increase education for children and youth at the preschool, K–12, and postsecondary levels • Encourage and support work among adults • Reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births while increasing the share of children reared by their married parents With concern for the federal deficit in mind, Haskins and Sawhill argue for reallocating existing resources, especially from the affluent elderly to disadvantaged children and their families. The authors are optimistic that a judicious use of the nation's resources can level the playing field and produce more opportunity for all. Creating an Opportunity Society offers the most complete summary available of the facts and the factors that contribute to economic opportunity. It looks at the poor, the middle class, and the rich, providing deep background data on how each group has fared in recent decades. Unfortunately, only the rich have made substantial progress, making this book a timely guide forward for anyone interested in what we can do as a society to improve the prospects for our less-advantaged families and fellow citizens.
Download or read book Money written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Money is nothing more than what is commonly exchanged for goods or services, so why has understanding it become so complicated? In Money, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith cuts through the confusions surrounding the subject to present a compelling and accessible account of a topic that affects us all. He tells the fascinating story of money, the key factors that shaped its development, and the lessons that can be learned from its history. He describes the creation and evolution of monetary systems and explains how finance, credit, and banks work in the global economy. Galbraith also shows that, when it comes to money, nothing is truly new—least of all inflation and fraud.
Download or read book The Culture of Contentment written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have-nots. In The Culture of Contentment, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend their comfortable status at a cost. Middle-class voting against regulation and increased taxation that would remedy pressing social ills has created a culture of immediate gratification, leading to complacency and hampering long-term progress. Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry underclass seem capable of changing the status quo. A groundbreaking critique, The Culture of Contentment shows how the complacent majority captures the political process and determines economic policy.
Download or read book A Life in Our Times written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his memoirs, John Kenneth Galbraith recalls amusingly, even brilliantly, the important and low moments in his life, the men and women he met who were great, only interesting, entertaining or even absurd. Galbraith studied agriculture in his native Canada and agricultural economics at UC-Berkeley. He taught at the University of California, served briefly in FDR’s administration and went on to Harvard. In Cambridge, England, he discovered the new economics of John Maynard Keynes. During World War II in Washington, he held the key job of organizing and administering the system of wartime price controls. After the war, Galbraith directed the survey that interrogated former Nazi leaders to assess the effects of the air war on the German economy. He then worked for the State Department as administrator for economic affairs in the occupied countries and served as an editor of Fortune when the magazine employed some of the best writers around. Galbraith returned to Harvard in 1948 and wrote three of the most influential books on economics of his time, The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State and Economics and the Public Purpose. In these lively memoirs, the author relates all of this and more — his two major political campaigns, with Adlai E. Stevenson for whom he was adviser and speech-writer, and John F. Kennedy, for whom he campaigned across the country; his years as ambassador in India; and his long opposition to the Vietnam war. And he shares the lessons learned from these experiences. “On every subject Mr. Galbraith is succinct and witty... The book is full of strong opinion and proceeds by the vehicle of anecdote... The serious business of the book... is to trace the steps of its author’s astonishingly varied and useful life... Mr. Galbraith’s vigor of expression, as well as an account of a period of gloom and psychotherapy, prevents the writing from ever sounding impersonal. That serious business is also to set the record straight — on what his books were about and how he evolved his theory of The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State, as two of his most important works were named; on why the bombing of Germany during World War II was less than useless, why it was patently unnecessary to wage atomic warfare on Japan and why he came to be a dissenter on the war in Vietnam. On inflation. On the ‘secular priesthood’ that once presided at the State Department. And, enchantingly, on such movers and shakers he came to know well as the New Dealer Leon Henderson, Paul Baran (‘the most interesting economist I have ever known’), Bernard M. Baruch, Adlai E. Stevenson, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.” — Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times “As a raconteur and a literary stylist, [Galbraith] stands with the best... As entertainment, the book is a total success. Its charm comes from the combination of Mr. Galbraith’s smooth comic timing and his not always charitable wit.” — James Fallows, The New York Times “Galbraith ranks with the most entertaining and provocative political writers in America in this century... Without Galbraith the political literature of our time would be far drearier.” — Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs “[Galbraith] has assembled a well-nigh complete record of what he has been up to, professionally at least, since leaving his family’s Ontario farm. The account is fascinating... The narrative... consistently holds the distinctive Galbraith style that makes all his books read like a nippy breeze.” — Geoffrey Colvin, Christian Science Monitor “Absorbing and irresistible.” — The New Yorker “An enjoyable book, full of fun, full of wisdom, and full of rare insights into the history of our times.” — The New Republic “A delightfully teeming book... Galbraith’s comic voice is a distinctive and durable literary achievement.” — Atlantic Monthly “A highly perceptive commentary on all our yesterdays... anecdotal, amusing, animated and above all, illuminating.” — John Barkham Reviews
Download or read book American Capitalism written by John Galbraith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his new introduction to this classic text on political economy, Galbraith reasserts the validity of the core thesis of American Capitalism: The best and established answer to economic power is the building of countervailing power. The trade union remains an equalizing force in the labor markets, and the chain store is the best answer to the market power of big food companies. This work remains an essential guidepost of American mores as well as that as of the American economy.
Download or read book Economics and the Public Purpose written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by Boston : Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 1973 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Criticism of the present economic system of the USA and proposals for comprehensive economic policy reform - covers the general economic theory of advanced economic development, consumption, and the concept of the household, the market system in relation to the service sector and the self employed, economic planning, price policy, inflation, income distribution, fiscal policy, the environment, technological change, the role of women, etc.
Download or read book The Nature of Mass Poverty written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Consumer Society written by Neva R. Goodwin and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The developed countries, particularly the United States, consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources, yet high and rising levels of consumption do not necessarily lead to greater satisfaction, security, or well-being, even for affluent consumers. The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental, moral, and social implications of a consumer society and consumer lifestyles. Each section consists of ten to twelve summaries of critical writings in a specific area, with an introductory essay that outlines the state of knowledge in that area and indicates where further research is needed. Sections cover: Scope and Definition Consumption in the Affluent Society Family, Gender, and Socialization The History of Consumerism Foundations of Economic Theories of Consumption Critiques and Alternatives in Economic Theory Perpetuating Consumer Culture: Media, Advertising, and Wants Creation Consumption and the Environment Globalization and Consumer Culture Visions of an Alternative This book is the second volume in the Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series, which provides surveys of the most significant writings in emergent areas of economics -- an invaluable aid in fast-growing fields where genuine new ground is being broken. The series brings together economists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers to develop analyses that challenge and enrich the dominant neoclassical paradigm. The Consumer Society is an essential guide to and summary of the literature of consumption and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the deeper economic, social, and ethical implications of consumerism.
Download or read book Communism and Consumerism written by Timo Vihavainen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumption in Russia and the former USSR has been lately studied as regards the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet period. The history of Soviet consumption and the Soviet variety of consumerism in the 1950s-1990s has hardly been studied at all. This book concentrates on the late Soviet period but it also considers pre-WWII and even pre-revolutionary times.The book consists of articles, which survey the longue durée of Russian and Soviet consumer attitudes, Soviet ideology of consumption as indicated in texts concerning fashion, the world of Soviet fashion planning and the survival strategies of the Soviet consumer complaining against sub-standard goods and services in a command economy. There's also a case study concerning the uses of concepts with anti-consumerist content. Contributors include: Lena Bogdanova, Olga Gurova, Timo Vihavainen and Larissa Zakharova.
