ABSTRACT
I f you believe everything you read in the newspapers, this is the age ofrage. In general, this claim is seen to be causally linked to conditions pe-culiar to 21st century living. Some of these changes stem from technological and pharmaceutical developments (leading, for example, to road rage and
’roid rage), but a broader class of developments relate to the emergence of a consumer society in which the greater part of many Westerners’ lives revolves around service transactions. When Wordsworth opined that “getting and spending we lay waste our powers” even he may not have been able to foresee that by the year 2000 approximately 50% of family income and nearly 10% of our waking hours would be devoted to acts of consumerism, covering activities such as traveling, shopping, vacationing, banking, and dining (Gutek, 1999; Schor, 1991).
