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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.
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
Description
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.
