Consider this oft-quoted passage about the limits of the good life. A family is on an outing. They picnic on exquisitely packaged food from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night at a park which is a menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air mattress, beneath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings. Such cultural criticism doesn't sound like it was launched in 1958 at the height of unquestioned consumerist America, when a burgeoning middle class sought to raise its baby boomer kids in a sanitized suburban style.
Ideas are inherently conservative.
There is much to learn and appreciate here. Forty years later, Galbraith's ideas are fresh and provocative. A Comprehensive Guide to Applying Biblical Principles of Financial Success by Scott Kays. As the century draws to a close, the urge to compute lists is upon us. Witness rankings of the 100 greatest movies, books, and the like.