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.
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15808-8_6
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