The Dependence Effect (as published in The Affluent Society)
Author(s)
Galbraith, John Kenneth
Abstract
“Were it so that a man on arising each morning was assailed by demons which instilled in him a passion sometimes for silk shirts, sometimes for kitchenware, sometimes for chamber pots, and sometimes for orange squash, there would be every reason to applaud the effort to find the goods, however odd, that quenched this flame. But should it be that his passion was the result of his first having cultivated the demons, and should it also be that his effort to allay it stirred the demons to ever greater and greater effort, there would be question as to how rational was his solution. Unless restrained by conventional attitudes, he might wonder if the solution lay with more goods or fewer demons.” This selection, from one of the classic critiques of consumer society, explains why conventional economic theory has so little to say about the origins and importance of consumer demand. It offers an alternative perspective in which production itself gives rise to demand for the goods that are produced. In recognition of the unique clarity of Galbraith’s prose style, most of this summary consists of direct quotes.
