The Culture of Contentment

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.