| What would happen if consumers decided
to simplify their lives and spend less on material goods and services? This{{U}}
(1) {{/U}}is taking on a certain urgency as rates of economic growth
continue to decelerate throughout the industrialized world, and{{U}} (2)
{{/U}}millions of consumers appear to be{{U}} (3) {{/U}}for more
frugal lifestyle. The Stanford Research Institute, which has done some of the
most extensive work on the frugality phenomenon,{{U}} (4) {{/U}}that
nearly five million American adults number "{{U}} (5) {{/U}}to and act
on some but not all" of its basic tenets. The frugality phenomenon first achieved prominence as a middle-class{{U}} (6) {{/U}}of high-consumption lifestyle in the industrial world during the 50's and 60's. In the Silent Revolution, Ronald Ingehart of the University of Michingan' s Institute of Social Research examined this{{U}} (7) {{/U}}in the United States and 10 Western European nations. He concluded that a change has taken place "from an{{U}} (8) {{/U}}emphasis on material well-being and physical security{{U}} (9) {{/U}}greater emphasis on the quality of life", that is, "a{{U}} (10) {{/U}}from materialism to post-materialism". Inglehart calls the 60s the "fat year". Among their more visible trappings were the ragged blue jeans favored by the affluent young. Most of them{{U}} (11) {{/U}}from materialism; however, this was{{U}} (12) {{/U}}. Comfortably fixed Americans were going{{U}} (13) {{/U}},{{U}} (14) {{/U}}making things last longer, sharing things with others, learning to do things for themselves and so on. But{{U}} (15) {{/U}}economically significant, it was hardly{{U}} (16) {{/U}}in a US Gross National Product climbing vigorously toward the ＄ 2 thousand billion mark. {{U}} (17) {{/U}}, as the frugality phenomenon matured--growing out of the soaring 80s and into the somber 90s--it seemed to undergo a{{U}} (18) {{/U}}transformation. American consumers continued to lose{{U}} (19) {{/U}}in materialism and were being joined by new converts who were {{U}}(20) {{/U}}frugality because of the darkening economic skies they saw ahead. |