The Age of Uncertainty Episode 2 - The Manners and Morals of High Capitalism

John Kenneth Galbraith
BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA
Level: beginner
Perspective: Institutionalist Economics
Topic: Inequality & Class, Reflection of Economics
Format: Documentary
Duration: 00:55:51
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb_leVNwyg8

Galbraith first explores the social darwinism of Herbert Spencer and others that served as apology for the highly unequal distribution of wealth in the US at the end of the 19th century and naturalized differences in wealth by appealing to the concept of natural selection of the fittest. Then some instances of the unscrupulous business practices (i.e. robberies) of the American railroad tycoons and other business magnates are recounted. Lastly, Galbraith lines out some of the arguments of Thorstein Veblen, who delegitimized and ridiculed the business and leisure activities of the rich by putting them in the same category as predatory and ritualized practices of primitive or ancient societies.

Go to: The Age of Uncertainty Episode 2 - The Manners and Morals of High Capitalism

Tags: conspiciuous consumption | economic history | history of economic thought | railroad | social darwinism | theology
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