The Affluent Society

by John Kenneth Galbraith

By contrast, to a very large degree in recent times, increased output has been sought not for the goods involved but for the effect on economic security. Whether we need or even wish the goods that are produced, their assured production means assured income for those who produce them. This serves the goal of economic security. Nothing else serves it so well. To falter on production, even though that production serves the most unimportant of requirements, is to expose some individuals somewhere to loss of employment and income. This cannot be allowed. The facts here are a matter of common observation. In the political life of western countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, the older British Commonwealths, Western Europe—nothing counts so heavily against a government as allowing unnecessary unemployment. It is not the lost production that is mentioned. It is always the unemployment. The remedy is, of course, more employment and higher production. Thus the effort to enhance economic security becomes the driving force behind production.