The Culture of Contentment

by John Kenneth Galbraith, Jeff Madrick (Foreword by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691171654
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/29/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) was one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century. He was professor of economics at Harvard University and served as U.S. ambassador to India during the Kennedy administration. He wrote more than fifty books, including American Capitalism, The Affluent Society, and The New Industrial State (Princeton).

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Jeff Madrick

A Word of Thanks xxv

1 The Culture of Contentment 1

2 The Social Character of Contentment: An Overview 11

3 The Functional Underclass 24

4 Taxation and the Public Services: The Perverse Effect 33

5 The License for Financial Devastation 40

6 The Bureaucratic Syndrome 51

7 The Economic Accommodation, I 61

8 The Economic Accommodation, II 74

9 The Foreign Policy of Contentment: The Recreational and the Real 85

10 The Military Nexus, I 95

11 The Military Nexus, II 103

12 The Politics of Contentment 112

13 The Reckoning, I 120

14 The Reckoning, II 129

15 Requiem 135

Index 143

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Culture of Contentment's core message about rising inequality, lessened economic mobility, and the serene self-satisfaction of those favored by such has been echoed and amplified endlessly in the last decade but rarely so elegantly and deftly."—Richard Parker, Harvard Kennedy School

Editorial Reviews

"The Culture of Contentment's core message about rising inequality, lessened economic mobility, and the serene self-satisfaction of those favored by such has been echoed and amplified endlessly in the last decade but rarely so elegantly and deftly."—Richard Parker, Harvard Kennedy School

From the Publisher

This is Galbraith's analysis of the bind we Americans have put ourselves in since Reagan-Bush. His thesis is that we have become a ``culture of contentment'' wherein the majority of those who vote are socially and economically advantaged and will fight like tigers to maintain that advantage by voting against increased taxation that would reduce the federal deficit and respond to aching social problems. ``The result is government that is accommodated not to reality or common need but to the beliefs of the contented.'' ``Having enough, many wish for more.'' Greed has thus given us reduced income taxes for the rich, Michael Milken, the S&L scandal, a bloated military, etc. What is needed is a return to strong governmental regulation, reduced military spending, and a stringent progressive income tax. Nothing ``would so contribute to social tranquility as some screams of anguish from the very affluent'' that would provide more money to public education, welfare services, employment training, public housing, and libraries. ``The question . . . is not what can be done but what will be paid.'' Essential for all academic and public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/91 . -- Jeffrey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio

Library Journal

A concise, contumacious critique of the complacent class that rules America in the interest of its own comfort, by distinguished economist Galbraith (emeritus, Harvard U.). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews