My Photo

Barry Beyerstein Memorial Thread

Photography


  • www.flickr.com
    This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Lindsay Beyerstein. Make your own badge here.

Support


Subscribe

  • Fancy New Feedburner Link

The Label


  • Unionlabelsupport
Blog powered by TypePad
Member since 04/2004

« Lester Pearson, Illuminati Tool | Main | Iran attacks Iraq »

April 30, 2006

John Kenneth Galbraith dies at 97

The renowned liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith died Saturday at the age of 97. [BBC]

I read "The New Industrial State" around the time I started my former life in advertising. The whole enterprise came into focus for me when I read Galbraith's characterization of the advertising industry as "the apparatus of persuasion and exhortation."

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/24039/4774756

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference John Kenneth Galbraith dies at 97:

Comments

He was always my very definition of a handsome "older man."

I have always thought of Galbraith as one the great Canadian thinkers. I love discussing him with students in my business ethics seminars.

Galbraith had a huge impact on moving me from the right to the left during my formative years. The phrase "private wealth, public squalor" still rings true 3+ decades after he penned them.

I have been browsing my usual eco-blogs and reading various comments. The comparison to Thorsten Veblen is apt. "Real economists" don't think that much of either TV or JKG because neither could produce the mystical equations, charts, and stats that are the reactionary numerological quasi-cult that is modern economics.

I don't blame JKG for Reagonomics, but blame the Laputans who rejected his compassion and responsibility for its lack of elegance and rigour.

The numbers underlying economic activity are vital, but too often "real economists" know 'the price of everything and the value of nothing'.

May he rest in peace.

Jane Jacobs died this week, too -- between them she and JKG had a massive influence on my own worldview. May they both rest in peace, and may we all enjoy such long, productive lives.

Post a comment

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In

Blog Ads

Events

Advertise Liberally


Blogroll

Stats