An old argument in new clothes

One of the most influential books of our generation, a polemic against consumerism, "commercialism" and greed, turns 50 years old this year, and still the argument lives, continuing to tangle traffic at the crowded intersection of politics and culture in what shapes up as a particularly pivotal year.
"The Affluent Society" was a best-selling rant by John Kenneth Galbraith, a Harvard economics professor, against the perceived excesses of the boom years following the end of World War II...