Author of The Affluent Society, popular public intellectual
A Canadian-American economist, one of the most famous public-intellectual economists of the twentieth century. Sharp of pen and clear of view, he wrote many best-selling works popularizing economics. In The Affluent Society he pointedly noted a paradox of postwar America: extreme private affluence (a car and a house full of goods in every home) beside relative public poverty (decaying schools, parks, and public services), while advertising ceaselessly manufactured wants people did not have. Carrying on Veblen’s critical tradition, he questioned the mainstream narrative that "more consumption means more happiness," and was a forceful defender of Keynesianism and big government.
Galbraith painted a jarring picture in The Affluent Society: a family drives a luxury car through a city of broken pavement, strewn litter, and decaying public facilities, out to picnic in the country, then camps by a polluted river. He asked: when private consumption is so affluent and public services so poor, is this really "affluence"? This diagnosis of "private affluence, public squalor" still indicts consumer society.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.