Galbraith's Affluence In Private Goods

216 Words1 Pages
According to Galbraith, there is “poverty… in public services … [and] affluence in private goods” (571). Despite being 60 years since he observed this, I still think it is applicable today. With mass media and advertisements, citizens are too often manipulated into buying private goods that they do not need. Neither exists for public goods, causing there to be significantly more private than public goods in society. In order to improve the social imbalance issue, Galbraith believes that the only solution is an “increased public cost” (573). While I do think that higher income taxes can bring in more money for public goods, the government might not even allocate the extra taxes appropriately. A better option would be to decrease the amount