"Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear"
About this Quote
Galbraith lands the punch with domestic comedy: underwear is intimate, disposable, and entirely under the wearer’s control. Power, he insists, is none of those things. The line is funny because it’s faintly indecent for an economist, but the joke has teeth: it mocks the fantasy that authority is a personal accessory you can put on for a meeting and toss off when it becomes inconvenient.
The specific intent is to puncture voluntarist myths about leadership and responsibility. In politics and corporate life, people love to talk as if power is a role you “take up” or “step away from,” as though the moment you resign, apologize, or declare yourself reluctant, the consequences evaporate. Galbraith’s subtext is harsher: power is relational and structural. It’s embedded in institutions, incentives, dependencies, and expectations. Once you’re in a position to hire, fire, regulate, set prices, wage war, or shape narratives, the effects travel outward and linger. You don’t simply exit the blast radius by changing your self-description.
Contextually, this fits Galbraith’s broader project: demystifying the market’s supposedly neutral forces and naming the organized power of corporations, technocrats, and the state. He understood “power” not as a cape for great men but as a system with inertia. The underwear comparison also needles a familiar elite pose - the powerful person who insists they’re just a temporary steward, above ambition, ready to “return to private life.” Galbraith’s line says: nice story. Power sticks, stains, and sometimes survives you.
The specific intent is to puncture voluntarist myths about leadership and responsibility. In politics and corporate life, people love to talk as if power is a role you “take up” or “step away from,” as though the moment you resign, apologize, or declare yourself reluctant, the consequences evaporate. Galbraith’s subtext is harsher: power is relational and structural. It’s embedded in institutions, incentives, dependencies, and expectations. Once you’re in a position to hire, fire, regulate, set prices, wage war, or shape narratives, the effects travel outward and linger. You don’t simply exit the blast radius by changing your self-description.
Contextually, this fits Galbraith’s broader project: demystifying the market’s supposedly neutral forces and naming the organized power of corporations, technocrats, and the state. He understood “power” not as a cape for great men but as a system with inertia. The underwear comparison also needles a familiar elite pose - the powerful person who insists they’re just a temporary steward, above ambition, ready to “return to private life.” Galbraith’s line says: nice story. Power sticks, stains, and sometimes survives you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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