Abstract
This article examines the critique of greed in America, with special reference to how that critique of greed varies with economic conditions. American history is characterized by an alternation between celebrations of acquistion and calls for asceticism. This dialectical process illustrates a fundamental cultural contradiction of American capitalism, first discussed by Daniel Bell. The analysis focuses on the disourse of greed during the Great Recession of 2008, and suggests that cultural criticisms of greed have powerful, but limited, political effectiveness. As economic crises continue and people come to blame polticians who fail to resolve them, rather than the “greedy” who are purported to cause them.
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Notes
See, for instance, a Pew Research Center study of “The People and Their Government” at: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1569/trust-in-government-distrust-discontent-anger-partisan-rancor
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Cushman, T. The Moral Economy of the Great Recession. Soc 52, 9–18 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-014-9852-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-014-9852-4