affluent society

Society in which most people have money left over after satisfying their basic needs such as food and shelter. They are then able to decide how to spend their excess (‘disposable’) income, and become ‘consumers’. The term was popularized by US economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

Galbraith used the term to describe the Western industrialized nations, particularly the USA, in his book The Affluent Society (1958), in which he advocated using more of the nation's wealth for public spending and less for private consumption.