Iconoclastic Economist John Kenneth Galbraith Dies

"The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power-steered, and power-braked automobile out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter, blighted buildings, billboards, and posts for wires that should long since have been put underground."

"They picnic," he added, "on exquisitely packaged food from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night in a park which is a menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air mattress, beneath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings."

Probably the first economics I ever learned was from my Dad's passing on of Galbraith's "private wealth, public poverty" dictum when I asked him why Nanaimo didn't have any public washrooms...