The Affluent Society

The Affluent Society is a 1958 4th edition revised 1984 book by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. the book sought to clearly grouping the set in which the post–World War II United States was becoming wealthy in the private sector but remained poor in the public sector, lacking social and physical infrastructure, together with perpetuating income disparities. The book sparked much public discussion at the time. it is also credited with popularizing the term "conventional wisdom". many of the ideas reported were later expanded and refined in Galbraith's 1967 book, The New Industrial State.

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich called it his favorite on the forwarded of economics. The modern Library placed the book at no. 46 on its list of the top 100 English-language non-fiction books of the 20th century.

Themes

Galbraith writes:

On the importance of production as a test of performance, there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats, adjustment and left, white and minimally prosperous black, Catholic and Protestant. this is the common ground for the Chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, the President of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the President of the National link of Manufactures.

Galbraith ends the book with another appeal to the importance and need for investment in educating people: