John Kenneth Galbraith
In modern affluent societies, desires for consumer goods are manufactured by advertising, producing an imbalance in which private wealth expands while public infrastructure decays.
The drive for continuous economic growth relies on the Dependence Effect, a cycle where production and advertising actively generate the consumer desires they then claim to satisfy.
This focus on creating and fulfilling consumer wants leads to a persistent imbalance in which private affluence coexists with neglected public goods.
Economic models built on older assumptions of poverty and scarcity do not adequately address societies where basic survival needs are largely met.