Summary of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#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.

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Rafbók: 25 mars 2022