John Kenneth Galbraith, the father of contemporary liberal economics, died yesterday in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 97.
As the New York Times obituary puts it this morning: “From the 1930’s to the 1990’s, Mr. Galbraith helped define the terms of the national political debate, influencing the direction of the Democratic Party and the thinking of its leaders.” He did so by serving as an adviser to Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson and by shaping the larger economic debate through writings such as his highly influential The Affluent Society (1958).
Galbraith’s passing is worth noting for Christians because his influence is so formative on the political climate in which we discuss, among other things, how to combat poverty and whether to utilize faith-based institutions to combat social ills. Even the one who would reject the assumptions of the contemporary welfare state need to understand that, more often than not, it is Galbraith against whom he is arguing.
And yet he was a man. His passing yesterday, like those of many less noticed men and women, should remind us that political influence may seem immortal, but all flesh is grass.
