John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

Canadian-American economist and diplomat (1908–2006)

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John Kenneth Galbraith (15 October 1908 – 29 April 2006) was a Canadian-American economist and author.

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Alternative Names: John K. Galbraith • John Galbraith • J. K. Galbraith • Ken Galbraith

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In recent times no problem has been more puzzling to thoughtful people than why, in a troubled world, we make such poor use of our affluence.

One man's consumption becomes his neighbor's wish.

We do not manufacture wants for goods we do not produce.

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.

The massive reduction in risk that is inherent in the development of the modern corporation has been far from fully appreciated.

Marx profoundly affected those who did not accept his system. His influence extended to those who least supposed they were subject to it.

Ideas do not respect national frontiers, and this is especially so where language and other traditions are in common.

Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described.

Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance with which they cannot contend.

The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.

Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego. It is well no doubt, to reflect on how much one owes to others.

But now, as throughout history, financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated. Long run salvation by men of business has never been highly regarded if it means disturbance of orderly life and convenience in the present. So inaction will be advocated in the present even though it means deep trouble in the future. Here, at least equally with communism, lies the threat to capitalism. It is what causes men who know that things are going quite wrong to say that things are fundamentally sound.

But there is still a considerable difference between a failure to do enough that is right and a determination to do much that is wrong.

At best, in such depression times, monetary policy is a feeble reed on which to lean.