Search This Blog

De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Galbraith Was Right About Advertising

Mises Daily: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 by Robert Batemarco
Now that I have your attention, rest assured that even when John Kenneth Galbraith got something right, he got it wrong. One of the signature ideas for which Galbraith is known is the Dependence Effect, which states that advertising convinces people that they need things that they don’t really need. In Galbraith’s own words, “If the individual’s wants are urgent, they must be original with himself. They cannot be urgent if they must be contrived for him. ... One cannot defend production as satisfying wants if that production creates the wants. ... The even more direct link between production and wants is provided by the institutions of modern advertising and salesmanship.”  Galbraith uses this concept to undermine the foundations of microeconomics in the personal preferences of individuals…..To Read More……

No comments:

Post a Comment