Abstract
Reviews how the Consumption paradigm gained extensive influence over structures of our economic systems and broader culture. In particular, the chapter examines the role of economists like Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson in framing what economics is and isn’t for the general public. Through their regular columns in Newsweek, Friedman and Samuelson influenced the way that a generation of Americans came to view economics and also themselves in relation to the economy. What they came away with was a sense that economics was about figuring out the best economic policies to attain goals like full employment, rather than seeing economics as something personal and meaningful. John Kenneth Galbraith had a similar impact through his book The Affluent Society, combining Keynesian economics with trenchant social analysis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Buchholz, Todd G. 1989. New Ideas from Dead Economists. New York: Plume.
Cross, Danny. 2013. There Are Too Many Types of Toothpaste. CityBeat, December 4.
Ekelund, Robert B., and Robert F. Hébert. 1990. A History of Economic Theory and Method. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Encyclopædia Britannica. 2019. John Kenneth Galbraith. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Kenneth-Galbraith. Accessed 21 Jan 2019.
Friedman, Milton. 1968. Why Economists Disagree. In Dollars and Deficits. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1958. The Affluent Society. New York: New American Library.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1975. How Keynes Came to America. In Essays on John Maynard Keynes, ed. Milo Keynes, 132–141. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1981. A Life in Our Times. New York: Ballantine Books.
Goldin, Claudia, and Cecilia Rouse. 2000. Orchestrating Impartiality. American Economic Review 90: 715–741.
Keynes, John Maynard. 1931. Essays in Persuasion. London: Macmillan.
Mata, Tiago. 2011. Trust in Independence. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences 47: 359–379.
Mata, Tiago. 2015. Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson, Columnists of Newsweek. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, forthcoming; working paper manuscript dated April 15, 2015. http://www.eshet.net/conference/paper_view.php?id=1321&p=39. Accessed 21 Jan 2019.
New Yorker. 1974. Cartoon. November 18.
Stein, Herbert. 1969. The Fiscal Revolution in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Time. 1965. We Are All Keynesians Now. December 31.
Time. 1966. Letters. February 4.
Time Cover Store. 2019. https://www.timecoverstore.com. Accessed 21 Jan 2019.
Wapshott, Nicholas. 2011. Keynes Hayek. New York: W. W. Norton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Claar, V.V., Forster, G. (2019). “We Are All Keynesians Now”: How the Revolution Transformed Our Economy and Culture. In: The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15808-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15808-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15807-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15808-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)