John Kenneth Galbraith
In modern affluent societies, our desires for consumer goods are artificially manufactured by advertising, leading to a dangerous imbalance where private wealth flourishes while public infrastructure decays.
The drive for continuous economic growth relies on the Dependence Effect, a cycle where production mechanisms and advertising actively synthesize the very consumer desires they claim to satisfy.
This relentless focus on creating and fulfilling artificial consumer wants leads to severe systemic imbalances characterized by extreme private affluence coexisting with chronically neglected public goods.
Economic models founded on historical assumptions of poverty and resource scarcity fail to adequately address the realities of modern societies where basic survival needs are already met.