Abstract
The critical historical method, to remind, begins with a set of facts to be explained, for which explanation is then provided. The third dimension of this method is to demonstrate the significance of the foregoing by examination of social problems or issues that stem from the explanation given. The useful economist will see that commercial, industrial society embodies core tendencies that chronically undermine the quality of human life and threaten to acutely diminish it in a flash of military or ecological bedlam. These untoward tendencies comprise the social predicament of the New Industrial State and the road to the future lies in the responses chosen in the effort to subordinate them to the quality of human life.
The American people can afford everything but beauty.
(E.D. Stone, 1959)
What counts is not the quantity of our goods but the quality of life.
(J.K. Galbraith, 1967)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1996 James Ronald Stanfield
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stanfield, J.R. (1996). The Social Predicament. In: John Kenneth Galbraith. Contemporary Economists. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24753-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24753-0_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-24755-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-24753-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)