What is the meaning of the phrase paradox of prosperity?

Answer 1

It means that a generation that is diligent, ethical and earnest produces not only economic prosperity and political stability, but also, paradoxically, produces a generation (that follows them) which cannot be characterized in the same way. This term was not coined by Professor Gilbert NMO Morris, but he used it after his research on the work of Thorstein Veblen and Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation". According to Morris "When we consider Veblen's description of Middle Class economic fetishes, their aspirational impulses, or their competitive drive to ensure that their children are 'better off' than they are, even when the middle class is constituted by sturdy asceticism as Mr. Brokaw showed in the post-Wrold War II generation", a paradox emerges."

Morris continues: "In the drive to ensure their children enjoy "comforts" and opportunities they did not, the 'greatest generation' - to follow Brokaw fails to instill in their children the cogent properties of character that can advance the very prosperity they created."

Morris says: "As in the ole wives tale in boxing, prosperity weakens, cheapens and undermines competitive drive, diligence and resilience. It promotes reliance, wishfulness and over-denpendencies."