The Life of the Characters in Galbraith's Works

John Kenneth Galbraith is an economist, a free thinker, a writer, a professor, a presidential adviser and an ambassador. He is taller than John Kenneth Galbraith, and was born on a farm near Einar Station in 1908. It is a long journey from the east coast of the United States to the political power center that will have an important influence. He studied politics from his peasant father, William archibald Galbraith. He also works in many positions in the local government. He is a social activist. John once said that his mother Sarah Katherine Kendall Galbraith also wanted him to be a farmer, but she died when he was fourteen.

Young John studied agronomy at Ontario Agricultural College for the first time, but he soon found himself more interested in economics. His research prompted him to study at the University of California, Berkeley, and he received his doctorate in agricultural economics from 65438 to 0934. In his early years, the economist Tollstam veblen and his book On the Leisure Class had a great influence on Mr. Galbraith. Mr. Van Buren believes that people gather wealth for "conspicuous consumption", and he also believes that people spend their earned money on valuables in order to gain social respect for them. Mr. Galbraith also said that the Great Depression, an economic disaster that spread around him and the whole country, had a far-reaching impact on him. The Great Depression seriously affected the American economy and the whole society. At the height of the Great Depression, at least one fifth of Americans were unemployed.

Mr Galbraith became a lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1937 became an American citizen. He married Catherine Otterwater, the daughter of a new york lawyer, and they later had four sons. This year, he also went to Britain to learn from the most influential economist in the 20th century. John maynard keynes is giving a lecture at Cambridge University. Last year, he just published the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Keynes believed that the severe economic crisis required the government to take strong measures to intervene in the economy. He said that during the economic recession, a large number of public projects and government price controls are necessary to increase employment.

From 65438 to 0939, John Kenneth Galbraith began to work for the government. He joined the National Defense Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., and later managed and controlled prices for the Price Management Office. Mr. Galbraith held an important position in the highest price control institution of the Roosevelt administration. However, he was forced to resign on 1943. Later, he said that he was ousted by the price control policy. In the same year, Mr. Galbraith began to write for Fortune magazine, which belongs to the famous conservative Henry Luce. Mr. Galbraith became a writer with superb writing skills, and even his strongest critics praised his writing ability, even though they disagreed with what he wrote.

At the end of World War II, Mr. Galbraith participated in the investigation of strategic bombing. The purpose of this survey is to measure the effect of American bombing of Germany. He was angry with those who said that the bombing only temporarily hindered Germany's war efforts. He found that the Germans only moved their industrial enterprises to new places after being bombed.

1958, Mr. Galbraith published his most famous book, Abundant Society. He pointed out that when the private sector in the United States becomes richer, public institutions will become poorer. He criticized American culture, saying: the abundance of goods and the poverty of social services. Mr. Galbraith also used the term "traditional wisdom" in his works, describing the view that everyone takes it seriously, but it has not been seriously considered or tested. The book "Abundant Society" caused widespread controversy at that time, and critics said that the book forced the country to re-examine its values. This book is still regarded as a model of reasoning and writing.

Mr Galbraith also dabbled in politics, which is unusual for an economist. During the two presidential campaigns in 1950s, he drafted speeches for Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Ewing Stevenson II. Later, he became a trusted advisor of President John F. Kennedy, who appointed him as the ambassador to India on 196 1. Thirty years later, Mr Galbraith accepted the honor of being an honorary citizen of India because he strengthened the relationship between India and the United States.

I was very happy in the years when I worked in the Kennedy administration, but1October 22nd, 1963 165438+ President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Vice President lyndon johnson took over as president after this tragedy. Mr Galbraith has a good relationship with the new president and has become his adviser. However, this relationship only lasted until the Vietnam War became the most important issue in the United States. Mr. Galbraith opposed the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. At that time, he talked about this problem in his speech. He said, "I like lyndon johnson very much, and I respect him. He is a man who combines his wisdom and will well and puts them into action. He felt very sorry that he broke off diplomatic relations with him because of some things on the Vietnam issue in the middle and late 1960s. " Public opposition to the American war in Vietnam prevented Johnson from seeking re-election. The war once again made Galbraith a political activist. He supported Eugene McCarthy, the anti-Vietnam War presidential candidate, and even nominated Mr. McCarthy as 65438-0968 at the Chicago Democratic nomination convention in Illinois. Mr. Galbraith later said: "Opposing going to Vietnam is more important than other major issues in my life, and this need deeply inspired me."

In the years after the Vietnam War, Ken Galbraith devoted his main energy to writing. He debated with conservative thinkers such as his friends William F. Barker and Johnny, and he continued to make suggestions to the Democratic President. 1996, his book Good Society was published, which is a new version of his Rich Society. He wrote that his early fears became worse, and the United States became a richer place, or a "lucky democracy". In his life, he wrote more than 30 books. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Mr. Galbraith the Medal of Freedom in recognition of his lifelong contribution.

John Kenneth Galbraith died in 2006 at the age of 97. William F. Barker said that his friends are very interested in social and ethical issues related to the economy. Galbraith's works lack mathematical and statistical analysis in most economic studies. However, these works are excellent examples of thinking about social responsibility and morality. The most famous sentence in his life is: "For an economist, economics is a very useful form of employment." Galbraith's observation and thinking are closely related to the times. To study Galbraith's thought is to study the overall social and economic situation of the United States since the 1960s. It will be very difficult to define Galbraith's real position in methodology and academic pedigree.

There is a saying that Galbraith is the second generation descendant of the "American Old Institutional School", and the first generation refers to Van Buren and Kang Mangsi. This statement has some truth, but it is not accurate. Galbraith certainly admired Van Buren and emphasized institutional analysis, but he would never oppose luxury and corruption as enthusiastically as Van Buren did. Gaston was much calmer, and his understanding and division of social class was quite different from Van Buren's. It is far-fetched to find out the relationship between them.

There is also a saying that Galbraith was a Keynesian. This statement is also debatable. Galbraith followed Keynes's macro-analysis method all his life, but only borrowed his perspective and didn't apply his method. These two people have some similar conclusions, but they use completely different methods. Keynes didn't analyze social stratum like Galbraith, and Galbraith didn't really practice Keynes's macro theory. Tony, Galbraith and Smith: State and Welfare by Reisman, a historian of economic thought, compares Galbraith with Adam Smith and Tony, a British economic historian, but it provides us with a brand-new way of thinking.

In the past, many people emphasized Smith's identity as an economist, but now it seems quite narrow. With the in-depth study of Smith, many scholars gradually restored his true colors as a moral philosopher. Smith wants to give a complete plan for the development and operation of society and really promote the perfection of human nature. This kind of effort is most obvious in The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Galbraith is also an economist like Smith and Tony. He is similar to Smith and Tony in that they all attach importance to their own interests, pursue people's well-being, listen to opinions with an open mind and actively strive to promote government improvement. They don't value pure theoretical research, but pay attention to the role of policy in reality. Smith's political stance is very complicated, but he is definitely not an extreme marketer as summarized by some people, while Tony and Galbraith are obviously left-wing liberals, both of whom have extensive feelings of pursuing social justice. A long time ago, British politician edmund burke once made a famous prediction: "The era of chivalry is gone forever;" Sophists, economists and people who are good at calculation are in full swing, and the European spirit (chivalry) is gone. " Many years later, Thomas Carlyle, a contemporary British writer, called economics a "dull science". For a long time, the above-mentioned typical views on economics and economists have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. However, neither Burke nor Carlisle foresaw the birth of Galbraith.

As far as the economic tradition is concerned, Galbraith is the successor of Keynesian thought. Keynes's contribution to the economic paradigm was greatly underestimated, because later economists (although many of them were his followers) were immersed in mathematical models. The significance of Galbraith is that he inherited Keynes's skills in dealing with public policies, and once again proved that economists can and should communicate effectively with the public. Even their beautiful and sharp writing style is the same.

Admittedly, Galbraith has not developed a solid economic theory. Robert Keidel, the author of the Biography of Keynes, thinks: "Galbraith lacks theoretical wisdom and may have no theoretical interest at all." In fact, Galbraith hates the purely theoretical method of economics. He believes that the biggest problem in economics is that "economic research narrowly excludes the factors of rights and political interests". In the ideal world of perfect competition, economic theory ignores the institutional factors that promote social evolution on the premise assumption.

Galbraith is not so much an economist as a combination of sociologist, political scientist and columnist. His three most famous books are portraits of various periods in America. In "American Capitalism" published by 1952, giant enterprises are in tit-for-tat with some opposition forces, especially trade unions; In the affluent society from 65438 to 0958, large-scale material consumption and amazing waste coexist. However, in the "newly industrialized countries" of 1967, producer sovereignty replaced consumer sovereignty, and commercial competition declined. In the following decades, these predictions were proved.

A sign of Galbraith's influence on American society is that he added many new elements to public thinking. The "affluent society" has not only changed the way the United States looks at itself, but also created some popular words: "traditional wisdom" and "private wealth and public poverty" ... Amartya Sen, an Indian economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, said that reading Galbraith's works is like reading Hamlet, "you will understand the source of all the quotations."