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definition of affluent society: The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith, 1963-09-01 Galbraith's classic on the economics of abundance is, in the words of the New York Times, a compelling challenge to conventional thought. With customary clarity, eloquence, and humor, Galbraith cuts to the heart of what economic security means (and doesn't mean) in today's world and lays bare the hazards of individual and societal complacence about economic inequity. While affluent society and conventional wisdom (first used in this book) have entered the vernacular, the message of the book has not been so widely embraced--reason enough to rediscover The Affluent Society. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved. |
definition of affluent society: The Consumer Society Neva R. Goodwin, Frank Ackerman, David Kiron, 2013-04-16 The developed countries, particularly the United States, consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources, yet high and rising levels of consumption do not necessarily lead to greater satisfaction, security, or well-being, even for affluent consumers. The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental, moral, and social implications of a consumer society and consumer lifestyles. Each section consists of ten to twelve summaries of critical writings in a specific area, with an introductory essay that outlines the state of knowledge in that area and indicates where further research is needed. Sections cover: Scope and Definition Consumption in the Affluent Society Family, Gender, and Socialization The History of Consumerism Foundations of Economic Theories of Consumption Critiques and Alternatives in Economic Theory Perpetuating Consumer Culture: Media, Advertising, and Wants Creation Consumption and the Environment Globalization and Consumer Culture Visions of an Alternative This book is the second volume in the Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series, which provides surveys of the most significant writings in emergent areas of economics -- an invaluable aid in fast-growing fields where genuine new ground is being broken. The series brings together economists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers to develop analyses that challenge and enrich the dominant neoclassical paradigm. The Consumer Society is an essential guide to and summary of the literature of consumption and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the deeper economic, social, and ethical implications of consumerism. |
definition of affluent society: Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Fereidoon Sioshansi, 2011-06-02 The complexity of carbon reduction and economic sustainability is significantly complicated by competing aspects of socioeconomic practices as well as legislative, regulatory, and scientific requirements and protocols. An easy to read and understand guide, Sioshansi, along with an international group of contributors, moves through the maze of carbon reduction methods and technologies, providing steps and insights to meet carbon reduction requirements and maintaining the health and welfare of the firm. The book's three part treatment is based on a clear and rigorous exposition of a wide range of options to reduce the carbon footprint Part 1 of the book, Challenge of Sustainability, examines the fundamental drivers of energy demand – economic growth, the need for basic energy services, and the interdependence of economic, political, environmental, social, equity, legacy and policy issues. Part 2 of the book, Technological Solutions, examines how energy can be used to support basic energy service needs of homes, commercial and industrial facilities and for other applications. Part 3 of the book, case studies, covers a number of innovative projects, initiatives, concepts or self-imposed targets in different parts of the world with the aim of significantly reducing energy use and carbon footprint of a company, a community, a city or an entire country. There was a widespread recognition among environmental engineers and energy economist of the importance of carbon reduction while sustaining the firm's economic growth. The only book to bring together both subjects into one easy to understand reference, Carbon Reduction and Economic Sustainability not only clearly explains which option has the lowest energy/carbon footprint but also which option would better suit the business in question. This includes carbon reduction for residential, transport, industrial and public sectors. - The only book to clearly explain the economic and environmental engineering aspects of carbon reduction. - Case studies taken from a number of international projects. - Carbon reduction options for all sectors of society. - The role of the planning system in carbon reduction. |
definition of affluent society: The Other America Michael Harrington, 1997-08 Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups. |
definition of affluent society: The New Industrial State John Kenneth Galbraith, 2015-04-29 With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer need where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings. First published in 1967, The New Industrial State continues to resonate today. |
definition of affluent society: Unfettered Hope Marva J. Dawn, 2003-03-31 In this prophetic call to faithful Christian living, Marva Dawn identifies the epidemic socio-cultural attitudes that destroy hope in our modern lives. Because affluent persons don't know what to value--how to choose what's important and weed out the rest--we remain dissatisfied with what we have and are compelled to want more. Dawn demonstrates, however, how Christians can organize their lives to live in ways that allow them to love God and neighbor and, in the process, alleviate the despair in their lives and in the lives of others in the world. |
definition of affluent society: Stone Age Economics Marshall Sahlins, 2013-04-03 Stone Age Economics is a classic of economic anthropology, ambitiously tackling the nature of economic life and how to study it comparatively. This collection of six influential essays is one of Marshall Sahlins' most important and enduring works, claiming that stone age economies formed the original affluent society. The book examines notions of production, distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors. This edition includes a new foreword by the author. |
definition of affluent society: The Culture of Contentment John Kenneth Galbraith, 2017-08-29 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. |
definition of affluent society: Communities in Action National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Committee on Community-Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States, 2017-04-27 In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome. |
definition of affluent society: The Distribution of Wealth – Growing Inequality? Michael Schneider, Mike Pottenger, J.E. King, 2016-11-25 This book answers a number of important questions about the distribution of wealth among people and the way that this distribution has changed over time. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the personal distribution of wealth from many dimensions: economic, statistical, ethical, political, sociological and legal. Using data from 21 countries, this book demonstrates how inequality in the distribution of wealth varies between different parts of the world and how it evolves, with particular emphasis on the claim that there has been a long-term and continued increase in inequality since the 1970s in most countries. It discusses alternative ways of measuring the degree of inequality, analyses Thomas Piketty's claim that society has become more unequal in recent decades, and assesses the relative importance of the various determinants of the distribution of wealth. The authors explain why the distribution of wealth is unequal, and discuss how it could be changed with alternative policies and the possible consequences of these policies for economic efficiency. The authors also compare the different distributions of wealth that are implied by alternative views of society. This is a valuable resource for students and academics in economics, political science and sociology seeking a state-of-the-art account of the theory and evidence surrounding inequality in the distribution of wealth. |
definition of affluent society: The Organization Man William H. Whyte, 2013-05-31 Regarded as one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times, The Organization Man developed the first thorough description of the impact of mass organization on American society. During the height of the Eisenhower administration, corporations appeared to provide a blissful answer to postwar life with the marketing of new technologies—television, affordable cars, space travel, fast food—and lifestyles, such as carefully planned suburban communities centered around the nuclear family. William H. Whyte found this phenomenon alarming. As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual. With its clear analysis of contemporary working and living arrangements, The Organization Man rapidly achieved bestseller status. Since the time of the book's original publication, the American workplace has undergone massive changes. In the 1990s, the rule of large corporations seemed less relevant as small entrepreneurs made fortunes from new technologies, in the process bucking old corporate trends. In fact this new economy appeared to have doomed Whyte's original analysis as an artifact from a bygone day. But the recent collapse of so many startup businesses, gigantic mergers of international conglomerates, and the reality of economic globalization make The Organization Man all the more essential as background for understanding today's global market. This edition contains a new foreword by noted journalist and author Joseph Nocera. In an afterword Jenny Bell Whyte describes how The Organization Man was written. |
definition of affluent society: Welfare, Inequality and Social Citizenship Daniel Edmiston, 2020-02-12 Exploring the lived realities of both poverty and prosperity in the UK, this book examines the material and symbolic significance of welfare austerity and its implications for social citizenship and inequality. The book offers a rare and vivid insight into the everyday lives, attitudes and behaviours of the rich as well as the poor, demonstrating how those marginalised and validated by the existing welfare system make sense of the prevailing socio-political settlement and their own position within it. Through the testimonies of both affluent and deprived citizens, the book problematises dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare, examining the civic attitudes and engagements of the rich and the poor, to demonstrate how welfare austerity and rising structural inequalities secure and maintain institutional legitimacy. The book offers a timely contribution to academic and policy debates pertaining to citizenship, welfare reform and inequality. |
definition of affluent society: What Money Can't Buy Michael J. Sandel, 2012-04-24 In What Money Can't Buy, renowned political philosopher Michael J. Sandel rethinks the role that markets and money should play in our society. Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? In his New York Times bestseller What Money Can't Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? Over recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can't Buy, he provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy? |
definition of affluent society: The Nature of Mass Poverty John Kenneth Galbraith, 1993 |
definition of affluent society: One-Dimensional Man Herbert Marcuse, 2013-10-11 One of the most important texts of modern times, Herbert Marcuse's analysis and image of a one-dimensional man in a one-dimensional society has shaped many young radicals' way of seeing and experiencing life. Published in 1964, it fast became an ideological bible for the emergent New Left. As Douglas Kellner notes in his introduction, Marcuse's greatest work was a 'damning indictment of contemporary Western societies, capitalist and communist.' Yet it also expressed the hopes of a radical philosopher that human freedom and happiness could be greatly expanded beyond the regimented thought and behaviour prevalent in established society. For those who held the reigns of power Marcuse's call to arms threatened civilization to its very core. For many others however, it represented a freedom hitherto unimaginable. |
definition of affluent society: Success and Luck Robert H. Frank, 2017-09-26 From New York Times bestselling author and economics columnist Robert Frank, a compelling book that explains why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in their success, why that hurts everyone, and what we can do about it How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. In Success and Luck, bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success—and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy. Frank describes how, in a world increasingly dominated by winner-take-all markets, chance opportunities and trivial initial advantages often translate into much larger ones—and enormous income differences—over time; how false beliefs about luck persist, despite compelling evidence against them; and how myths about personal success and luck shape individual and political choices in harmful ways. But, Frank argues, we could decrease the inequality driven by sheer luck by adopting simple, unintrusive policies that would free up trillions of dollars each year—more than enough to fix our crumbling infrastructure, expand healthcare coverage, fight global warming, and reduce poverty, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If this sounds implausible, you'll be surprised to discover that the solution requires only a few, noncontroversial steps. Compellingly readable, Success and Luck shows how a more accurate understanding of the role of chance in life could lead to better, richer, and fairer economies and societies. |
definition of affluent society: The American Yawp Joseph L. Locke, Ben Wright, 2019-01-22 I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Leaves of Grass The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond. Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, The American Yawp incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp will be available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey. Volume I begins with the indigenous people who called the Americas home before chronicling the collision of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.The American Yawp traces the development of colonial society in the context of the larger Atlantic World and investigates the origins and ruptures of slavery, the American Revolution, and the new nation's development and rebirth through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Rather than asserting a fixed narrative of American progress, The American Yawp gives students a starting point for asking their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities that we confront today. |
definition of affluent society: The Wealth Paradox Frank Mols, Jolanda Jetten, 2017-05-25 This book presents compelling evidence of the 'wealth paradox', where economic prosperity can also fuel prejudice, social unrest, and intergroup hostility. |
definition of affluent society: U.S. Health in International Perspective National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on Population, Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries, 2013-04-12 The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, peer countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage. |
definition of affluent society: Analyzing Oppression Ann E. Cudd, 2006 Analyzing Oppression presents a new, integrated theory of social oppression, which tackles the fundamental question that no theory of oppression has satisfactorily answered: if there is no natural hierarchy among humans, why are some cases of oppression so persistent? Cudd argues that the explanation lies in the coercive co-opting of the oppressed to join in their own oppression. This answer sets the stage for analysis throughout the book, as it explores the questions of how and why the oppressed join in their oppression. Cudd argues that oppression is an institutionally structured harm perpetrated on social groups by other groups using direct and indirect material, economic, and psychological force. Among the most important and insidious of the indirect forces is an economic force that operates through oppressed persons' own rational choices. This force constitutes the central feature of analysis, and the book argues that this force is especially insidious because it conceals the fact of oppression from the oppressed and from others who would be sympathetic to their plight. The oppressed come to believe that they suffer personal failings and this belief appears to absolve society from responsibility. While on Cudd's view oppression is grounded in material exploitation and physical deprivation, it cannot be long sustained without corresponding psychological forces. Cudd examines the direct and indirect psychological forces that generate and sustain oppression. She discusses strategies that groups have used to resist oppression and argues that all persons have a moral responsibility to resist in some way. In the concluding chapter Cudd proposes a concept of freedom that would be possible for humans in a world that is actively opposing oppression, arguing that freedom for each individual is only possible when we achieve freedom for all others. |
definition of affluent society: Bobos in Paradise David Brooks, 2010-05-11 In his bestselling work of “comic sociology,” David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today’s upper class—those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation. Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo. |
definition of affluent society: Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture Dale Southerton, 2011-09-15 The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture is the first reference work to outline the parameters of consumer culture and provide a critical, scholarly resource on consumption and consumerism. |
definition of affluent society: Our Invisible Poor Dwight Macdonald, 1963 |
definition of affluent society: Work, Consumption and Culture Paul Ransome, 2005-01-19 The central question in Work, Consumption and Culture is whether consumption has now displaced production as the defining factor in the lives of those in the industrialized West. This book offers a comprehensive review of the key issues in the production/consumption debate, and where it might lead in the future. Key to Paul Ransome′s argument is the hypothesis that affluence is the crucial factor in the shift away from work and towards consumption. Uniquely emphasizing the links between work, consumption and culture, rather than keeping each element separate, the author looks at: - the changing significance of work in society - the meaning, growth and significance of affluence - the growing importance of consumption as a source of identity and its implications the impact of the shift to consumption on work/life balance Work, Consumption and Culture engages the reader with its lively debating style. It is an essential introduction for sociology and cultural studies students on courses relating to consumption and the role of work in contemporary society. `This book offers a balanced account of the changing importance of work and consumption in contemporary industrial society. Clearly written, the author identifies the central role that affluence plays in the relationship between work and consumption, and in the development of social life and individual identity′ - Professor Paul Blyton, Cardiff Business School |
definition of affluent society: Equality and Efficiency REV Arthur M. Okun, 2015-04-30 Originally published in 1975, Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff is a very personal work from one of the most important macroeconomists of the last hundred years. And this new edition includes Further Thoughts on Equality and Efficiency, a paper published by the author two years later. In classrooms Arthur M. Okun may be best remembered for Okun's Law, but his lasting legacy is the respect and admiration he earned from economists, practitioners, and policymakers. Equality and Efficiency is the perfect embodiment of that legacy, valued both by professional economists and those readers with a keen interest in social policy. To his fellow economists, Okun presents messages, in the form of additional comments and select citations, in his footnotes. To all readers, Okun presents an engaging dual theme: the market needs a place, and the market needs to be kept in its place. As Okun puts it: Institutions in a capitalist democracy prod us to get ahead of our neighbors economically after telling us to stay in line socially. This double standard professes and pursues an egalitarian political and social system while simultaneously generating gaping disparities in economic well-being. Today, Okun's dual theme feels incredibly prescient as we grapple with the hot-button topic of income inequality. In his foreword, Lawrence H. Summers declares: On what one might think of as questions of economic philosophy, I doubt that Okun has been improved on in the subsequent interval. His discussion of how societies rely on rights as well as markets should be required reading for all young economists who are enamored with market solutions to all problems. With a new foreword by Lawrence H. Summers |
definition of affluent society: Culture and Public Action Vijayendra Rao, Michael Walton, 2004 Led by Amartya Sen, Mary Douglas, and Arjun Appadurai, the distinguished anthropologists and economists in this book forcefully argue that culture is central to development, and present a framework for incorporating culture into development discourse. For further information on the book and related essays, please visit www.cultureandpublicaction.org. |
definition of affluent society: The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits, 2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy’s successes. This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people. |
definition of affluent society: Income Inequality Janet C. Gornick, Markus Jäntti, 2014-08-01 This state-of-the-art volume presents comparative, empirical research on a topic that has long preoccupied scholars, politicians, and everyday citizens: economic inequality. While income and wealth inequality across all populations is the primary focus, the contributions to this book pay special attention to the middle class, a segment often not addressed in inequality literature. Written by leading scholars in the field of economic inequality, all 17 chapters draw on microdata from the databases of LIS, an esteemed cross-national data center based in Luxembourg. Using LIS data to structure a comparative approach, the contributors paint a complex portrait of inequality across affluent countries at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume also trail-blazes new research into inequality in countries newly entering the LIS databases, including Japan, Iceland, India, and South Africa. |
definition of affluent society: The Social Meaning of Money Viviana A. Zelizer, 2021-09-14 A dollar is a dollar—or so most of us believe. Indeed, it is part of the ideology of our time that money is a single, impersonal instrument that impoverishes social life by reducing relations to cold, hard cash. After all, it's just money. Or is it? Distinguished social scientist and prize-winning author Viviana Zelizer argues against this conventional wisdom. She shows how people have invented their own forms of currency, earmarking money in ways that baffle market theorists, incorporating funds into webs of friendship and family relations, and otherwise varying the process by which spending and saving takes place. Zelizer concentrates on domestic transactions, bestowals of gifts and charitable donations in order to show how individuals, families, governments, and businesses have all prescribed social meaning to money in ways previously unimagined. |
definition of affluent society: Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty, 2017-08-14 What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today. |
definition of affluent society: The 9.9 Percent Matthew Stewart, 2021-10-12 A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves. In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9% that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country—and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system. They log insane hours at the office and then turn their leisure time into an excuse for more career-building, even as they rely on an underpaid servant class to power their economic success and satisfy their personal needs. They have segregated themselves into zip codes designed to exclude as many people as possible. They have made fitness a national obsession even as swaths of the population lose healthcare and grow sicker. They have created an unprecedented demand for admission to elite schools and helped to fuel the dramatic cost of higher education. They channel their political energy into symbolic conflicts over identity in order to avoid acknowledging the economic roots of their privilege. And they have created an ethos of “merit” to justify their advantages. They are all around us. In fact, they are us—or what we are supposed to want to be. In this “captivating account” (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone), Matthew Stewart argues that a new aristocracy is emerging in American society and it is repeating the mistakes of history. It is entrenching inequality, warping our culture, eroding democracy, and transforming an abundant economy into a source of misery. He calls for a regrounding of American culture and politics on a foundation closer to the original promise of America. |
definition of affluent society: Andrew Carnegie Speaks to the 1% Andrew Carnegie, 2016-04-14 Before the 99% occupied Wall Street... Before the concept of social justice had impinged on the social conscience... Before the social safety net had even been conceived... By the turn of the 20th Century, the era of the robber barons, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) had already accumulated a staggeringly large fortune; he was one of the wealthiest people on the globe. He guaranteed his position as one of the wealthiest men ever when he sold his steel business to create the United States Steel Corporation. Following that sale, he spent his last 18 years, he gave away nearly 90% of his fortune to charities, foundations, and universities. His charitable efforts actually started far earlier. At the age of 33, he wrote a memo to himself, noting ...The amassing of wealth is one of the worse species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money. In 1881, he gave a library to his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1889, he spelled out his belief that the rich should use their wealth to help enrich society, in an article called The Gospel of Wealth this book. Carnegie writes that the best way of dealing with wealth inequality is for the wealthy to redistribute their surplus means in a responsible and thoughtful manner, arguing that surplus wealth produces the greatest net benefit to society when it is administered carefully by the wealthy. He also argues against extravagance, irresponsible spending, or self-indulgence, instead promoting the administration of capital during one's lifetime toward the cause of reducing the stratification between the rich and poor. Though written more than a century ago, Carnegie's words still ring true today, urging a better, more equitable world through greater social consciousness. |
definition of affluent society: How to Think Like an Anthropologist Matthew Engelke, 2019-06-18 What is anthropology? What can it tell us about the world? Why, in short, does it matter? For well over a century, cultural anthropologists have circled the globe, from Papua New Guinea to suburban England and from China to California, uncovering surprising facts and insights about how humans organize their lives and articulate their values. In the process, anthropology has done more than any other discipline to reveal what culture means--and why it matters. By weaving together examples and theories from around the world, Matthew Engelke provides a lively, accessible, and at times irreverent introduction to anthropology, covering a wide range of classic and contemporary approaches, subjects, and practitioners. Presenting a set of memorable cases, he encourages readers to think deeply about some of the key concepts with which anthropology tries to make sense of the world--from culture and nature to authority and blood. Along the way, he shows why anthropology matters: not only because it helps us understand other cultures and points of view but also because, in the process, it reveals something about ourselves and our own cultures, too. --Cover. |
definition of affluent society: The Good Son Michael Gruber, 2010-05-06 A soldier reconnects with his past as he fights to save his mother from the radicals who have kidnapped her in this taut, layered, riveting suspense novel. Special Operations soldier Theo Bailey is right to be concerned when his mother, a controversial Muslim writer, announces that she will be traveling to Pakistan to attend a symposium on peace. His worst fears are realized when the conference is taken hostage by a group of terrorists who resolve to execute the captives one at a time. Fortunately, Sonia Bailey Laghari has a few tricks of her own: an astounding facility with languages, the mysterious insights of Jungian psychotherapy, and an unthinkable, at times brutal, sense of faith. While Theo masterminds a high-stakes military operation to save the hostages, his mother discovers in her gift for dream interpretation a psychological tool of great power and subtlety. For her fellow prisoners, including an eccentric American billionaire and a Jesuit priest, Sonia’s uncanny influence over the captors is their only hope for survival. Praise for The Good Son “Adeptly plotted yet philosophical, worldly yet preoccupied with moral truth, it’s a book to provoke comparisons with John le Carré and Graham Greene.” —Laura Miller, Salon.com “The brilliant character development and the labyrinthian plot . . . make this a provocative thriller that readers won’t soon forget.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Gruber . . . weaves the threads together masterfully while successfully exploring themes of family, duty, loyalty, cultural identity and more, without ever slowing the momentum. Smart, tense and vastly entertaining.” —Kirkus Reviews |
definition of affluent society: Fair Society, Healthy Lives Michael Marmot, 2013 |
definition of affluent society: A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on National Statistics, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years, 2019-09-16 The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years. |
definition of affluent society: Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King, 2025-01-14 A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay Letter from Birmingham Jail, part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. Letter from Birmingham Jail proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality. |
definition of affluent society: Wealth Yuval Elmelech, 2020-12-03 The pursuit of wealth has captivated people’s attention for centuries. Yet, as a topic of social research, the way in which wealth is accumulated and unequally distributed has largely been neglected, remaining hidden beneath data on income inequality. Wealth aims to address this blind spot in the academic discourse. In accessible prose, Yuval Elmelech explains how personal wealth differs fundamentally from other conventional measures of socioeconomic status and why it has become increasingly important to our understanding of social mobility and stratification. Crucially, Elmelech presents a dynamic sociological framework of wealth attainment that illuminates the effects of cumulative advantages and disadvantages over the course of an individual’s life, and across generations. He describes how these advantages and disadvantages are in turn shaped by a complex interplay of multiple markets, changing demographic landscapes, and persistent inter-group wealth disparities. Blending theoretical approaches with empirical evidence and macro-level contexts with micro-level processes, this book is an astute guide for thinking about wealth as a key determinant of social and economic wellbeing and for interrogating the role of wealth accumulation in social inequality. |
definition of affluent society: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Richard Rothstein, 2017-05-02 New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection One of Bill Gates’ “Amazing Books” of the Year One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction An NPR Best Book of the Year Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) Finalist • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review). Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past. |
definition of affluent society: The Health Gap Michael Marmot, 2015-09-10 'Punchily written ... He leaves the reader with a sense of the gross injustice of a world where health outcomes are so unevenly distributed' Times Literary Supplement 'Splendid and necessary' Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm, New Statesman There are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. A poor man in Glasgow is rich compared to the average Indian, but the Glaswegian's life expectancy is 8 years shorter. The Indian is dying of infectious disease linked to his poverty; the Glaswegian of violent death, suicide, heart disease linked to a rich country's version of disadvantage. In all countries, people at relative social disadvantage suffer health disadvantage, dramatically so. Within countries, the higher the social status of individuals the better is their health. These health inequalities defy usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasised access to technical solutions – improved medical care, sanitation, and control of disease vectors; or behaviours – smoking, drinking – obesity, linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These approaches only go so far. Creating the conditions for people to lead flourishing lives, and thus empowering individuals and communities, is key to reduction of health inequalities. In addition to the scale of material success, your position in the social hierarchy also directly affects your health, the higher you are on the social scale, the longer you will live and the better your health will be. As people change rank, so their health risk changes. What makes these health inequalities unjust is that evidence from round the world shows we know what to do to make them smaller. This new evidence is compelling. It has the potential to change radically the way we think about health, and indeed society. |
THE “AFFLUENT SOCIETY” OF JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
In the analysis of the main aspects and problems of the developed economies, Galbraith addresses the following questions: how is it perceived in the current opinion the “affluent …
The Affluent Society
Running through the early editions of The Affluent Society was a strongly expressed warning about inflation. It was the prime threat hovering over a society of general well-being. Inflation …
the original affluent society - Archive.org
original affl uent society was none other than the hunter’s - in which all the people’s material wants were easily satisfi ed. To accept that hunters are affl uent is therefore to recognise …
Definition Of Affluent Society [PDF]
satisfaction security or well being even for affluent consumers The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental moral and …
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Affluent Society Defined (PDF)
The term "affluent society," coined and popularized by economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1958 book of the same name, describes a society characterized by widespread economic …
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One of Galbraith’s most influential works, The Affluent Society, published in 1958, warned against the explosion of consumerism following WWII made possible by federal policies like the G.I. …
26 The Affluent Society - degruyterbrill.com
In 1958, Harvard economist and public intellectual John Kenneth Gal-braith published The Afluent Society. Galbraith’s celebrated book exam-ined America’s new post–World War II consumer …
John Kenneth Galbraith - Middlebury College
This selection, taken from The Affluent Society, discusses the “dependence effect,” an idea that parallels and further develops Veblen’s notion of “conspicuous consumption.” Specifically, …
'The Affluent Society' after Twenty-Five Years - JSTOR
The Affluent Society examines the continuing urgency that affluent societies attach to higher consumption and to the growth of production. The general explanation for this paradox, very …
Definition Of Affluent Society - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
for affluent consumers The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental moral and social implications of a consumer society …
Definition Of Affluent Society - origin-biomed.waters
definition of affluent society: The Other America Michael Harrington, 1997-08 Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other …
Definition Of Affluent Society (PDF) - cie-advances.asme.org
The most straightforward definition of an affluent society focuses on economic prosperity. A high average income, low poverty rates, and a strong GDP are common indicators. Think of …
CHAPTER 24 An Affluent Society (1953 - 1960) - AP United …
CHAPTER 24 – An Affluent Society (1953 - 1960) READING: 4 Sections 20 KEY TERMS: Terms Due The Golden Age (pages 990 - 1005) 1-7 Tues. 4/3
Definition Of Affluent Society (PDF) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
Definition Of Affluent Society Erik Damman. Definition Of Affluent Society: Affluent Society) Chapter 7 Frederick Fennell,1958 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith,1963-09-01 …
THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY
Marshall Sahlins’s “The Original Affluent Society” challenged the assumption that all of human history has witnessed a struggle between needs and insufficient means to satisfy them, …
Definition Of Affluent Society Copy - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
By accessing Definition Of Affluent Society versions, you eliminate the need to spend money on physical copies. This not only saves you money but also reduces the environmental impact …
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This book delves into Definition Of Affluent Society. Definition Of Affluent Society is a vital topic that must be grasped by everyone, from students and scholars to the general public. The book …
Definition Of Affluent Society (book) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
Definition Of Affluent Society: Affluent Society) Chapter 7 Frederick Fennell,1958 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith,1963-09-01 Galbraith s classic on the economics of …
Definition Of Affluent Society (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
the original affluent society The book examines notions of production distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors …
THE “AFFLUENT SOCIETY” OF JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
In the analysis of the main aspects and problems of the developed economies, Galbraith addresses the following questions: how is it perceived in the current opinion the “affluent …
The Affluent Society
Running through the early editions of The Affluent Society was a strongly expressed warning about inflation. It was the prime threat hovering over a society of general well-being. Inflation …
the original affluent society - Archive.org
original affl uent society was none other than the hunter’s - in which all the people’s material wants were easily satisfi ed. To accept that hunters are affl uent is therefore to recognise …
Definition Of Affluent Society [PDF]
satisfaction security or well being even for affluent consumers The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental moral and …
Definition Of Affluent Society (Download Only)
the original affluent society The book examines notions of production distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors …
Affluent Society Defined (PDF)
The term "affluent society," coined and popularized by economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1958 book of the same name, describes a society characterized by widespread economic …
The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith - Amazon …
One of Galbraith’s most influential works, The Affluent Society, published in 1958, warned against the explosion of consumerism following WWII made possible by federal policies like the G.I. …
26 The Affluent Society - degruyterbrill.com
In 1958, Harvard economist and public intellectual John Kenneth Gal-braith published The Afluent Society. Galbraith’s celebrated book exam-ined America’s new post–World War II consumer …
John Kenneth Galbraith - Middlebury College
This selection, taken from The Affluent Society, discusses the “dependence effect,” an idea that parallels and further develops Veblen’s notion of “conspicuous consumption.” Specifically, …
'The Affluent Society' after Twenty-Five Years - JSTOR
The Affluent Society examines the continuing urgency that affluent societies attach to higher consumption and to the growth of production. The general explanation for this paradox, very …
Definition Of Affluent Society - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
for affluent consumers The Consumer Society provides brief summaries of the most important and influential writings on the environmental moral and social implications of a consumer society …
Definition Of Affluent Society - origin-biomed.waters
definition of affluent society: The Other America Michael Harrington, 1997-08 Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other …
Definition Of Affluent Society (PDF) - cie-advances.asme.org
The most straightforward definition of an affluent society focuses on economic prosperity. A high average income, low poverty rates, and a strong GDP are common indicators. Think of …
CHAPTER 24 An Affluent Society (1953 - 1960) - AP United …
CHAPTER 24 – An Affluent Society (1953 - 1960) READING: 4 Sections 20 KEY TERMS: Terms Due The Golden Age (pages 990 - 1005) 1-7 Tues. 4/3
Definition Of Affluent Society (PDF) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
Definition Of Affluent Society Erik Damman. Definition Of Affluent Society: Affluent Society) Chapter 7 Frederick Fennell,1958 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith,1963-09-01 …
THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY
Marshall Sahlins’s “The Original Affluent Society” challenged the assumption that all of human history has witnessed a struggle between needs and insufficient means to satisfy them, …
Definition Of Affluent Society Copy - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
By accessing Definition Of Affluent Society versions, you eliminate the need to spend money on physical copies. This not only saves you money but also reduces the environmental impact …
Definition Of Affluent Society (book) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
This book delves into Definition Of Affluent Society. Definition Of Affluent Society is a vital topic that must be grasped by everyone, from students and scholars to the general public. The book …
Definition Of Affluent Society (book) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
Definition Of Affluent Society: Affluent Society) Chapter 7 Frederick Fennell,1958 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith,1963-09-01 Galbraith s classic on the economics of …
Definition Of Affluent Society (2024) - 10anos.cdes.gov.br
the original affluent society The book examines notions of production distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors …