Publisher's Synopsis
The author's response to the political and economic condition of the West today, this book traces the growth of a new, stultifying contentment in our society. Galbraith contrasts the condition of the underclass to that of the self-serving, politically dominant classes. He looks at the causes and by-products of the current politico-economic stasis, such as short-term thinking and investment, and draws parallels between the crippling denial of trouble in Eastern Europe and that in our own backyard.;The author also wrote "The Affluent Society" and "The New Industrialist State".