The Affluent Society

by John Kenneth Galbraith

In industries where firms are few and comparatively large—oil, metallurgy, automobiles, chemicals, rubber, heavy engineering—the investment in technological advance is considerable. The research and developmental work on which this advance depends is well financed and comprehensive. But in many industries where the firms are numerous and small—home construction, clothing manufacture, the natural-fiber textile industry, the service industries—the investment in innovation is negligible. No firm is large enough to afford it on an appreciable scale; there is real question as to whether it is worthwhile for such firms.3 Unlike agriculture, where innovation is extensively supported by the federal and state governments, there is little or no publicly financed research and development. Yet the absence of investment in innovation in these industries, much though we value its fruits in other industries in which it occurs, excites not the slightest attention.