Economist John Kenneth Galbraith famously claimed an inverse relationship between the public good and the growth of private wealth.
"The Affluent Society (1958), John Kenneth Galbraith’s most broadly influential book, stands out among works of economic analysis for its accessible writing style, which makes complex economic concepts and arguments understandable to the popular reader. Galbraith’s phrase ‘‘conventional wisdom,’’ a key concept introduced in The Affluent Society, has entered common parlance so pervasively that it is now used to describe a variety of concepts not necessarily related to economic theory." More here
“If the individual’s wants are to be urgent,” he wrote, “they must be original with himself. They cannot be urgent if they must be contrived for him. And above all, they must not be contrived by the process of production by which they are satisfied. ... One cannot defend production as satisfying wants if that production creates the wants” More information here
Professor Greg Lloyd, who very kindly spoke at our first APT AGM, makes reference to JK Galbraith in his Sir Patrick Geddes Commemorative Lecture 2006, 'Planning and the public interest in the modern world'. Professor Lloyd stated:
"J K Galbraith (who died recently) also offers insights into contemporary land use planning practice. In perhaps his most famous work, The Affluent Society, he demonstrated the importance of investment in infrastructure to support development in the public interest, and the development of the public interest. He argued that private business "creates" consumer wants (through advertising) and artificial affluence through the production of commercial goods and services. As a consequence leading to the “private wealth – public squalor” duality. Systematic attention to the infrastructure resource then becomes important for the public interest at large. Again lessons for today. "
More details here
Some of J K Galbraith quotes can be found here
No comments:
Post a Comment