Tag Archives: richard layard

The Challenge of Affluence

Avner Offer’s The Challenge of Affluence starts with certainty and ends with doubt. “Affluence breeds impatience, and impatience undermines well-being”, states Offer at the start of Chapter 1. That theme runs through the book to his conclusion, but the lessons he draws from it are not as simple or confidently stated: “Well-being is more than having more. It is a balance between our own needs, and those of others, on whose goodwill and approbation our own well-being depends … I present these findings in the hope that they will make our choices appear not simpler and easier, but as …

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    @Richard Whelan. You speak the truth. There is no compelling narrative. People feel that we represent a sort of middle of the road, a tweak here and a tweak ...
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    Clearly NS is a complex character and as such is capable of great kindness. I remember reading that when David Cameron’s father was taken ill in the South ...
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    Caron this is such an accurate account of the all talk show. Iain Dale is such a great interviewer bringing out the best in anyone he interviews. I agree...