definitions

affluent society

noun

a society in which the material benefits of prosperity are widely available

RELATED CONTENT

From “Great Society” to “Green New Deal”: How Do Politicians Name Policies?If the success of a political program is at least partly dependent on what it's called, what does it take for a name like the Green New Deal to stand out?
READ MORE
When Did “Fat” Become An Insult?The word fat holds a complicated place in our society. As an adjective, it joins words like tall, hairy, fluffy, or bright. But, unlike those descriptors, fat isn't neutral.
READ MORE

Nearby words

affliction, afflictive, affluence, affluency, affluent, affluent society, affluential, affluenza, afflux, affogato, afford
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Culture definitions for affluent society

affluent society

A society in which scarcity of resources is not the predominant condition, and a general level of economic well-being has been achieved by most members of society. The term was made current by John Kenneth Galbraith in The Affluent Society, which described conditions in the United States after World War II.

Note

Conventional economic theory is based on the assumption that resources are scarce. Therefore, it makes increasing production in the private sector and limiting interference and regulation from the government a priority. In Galbraith's affluent society, this priority is misplaced because scarcity is not predominant. The continued pursuit of conventional economic objectives in an affluent society leads to the conditions Galbraith observed in postwar America: private-sector affluence and public-sector squalor. For example, affluence in the private sector led to the mass availability of automobiles. Because public-sector interference (in the form of regulation and taxation) was discouraged, however, governments could not afford to build adequate roadways to accommodate those automobiles.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.