The American “Income Revolution”

Few claims concerning the direction of the American economy have been more important to social and political theory than the assertion that income has been radically redistributed. The theoretical systems built around this theme have captured the imagination of a very substantial proportion, if not the majority, of social scientists.

David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd is an excellent example of an important contemporary study which is dependent on a theory of income redistribution. To Riesman, the development of a new personality type—the other-directed individual—is concomitant with the shift in the economy from an age of “production” to an age of “consumption.” With this new age has come ...