ABSTRACT
Discomfort about the overarching goal of capitalist economies, and the idea that achieving ever higher levels of consumption of products and services is a vacuous goal, has been with us since the onset of industrialization (Shi 2003). Criticism of consumerism was common among followers of countercultures. They sought a lifestyle that consumed and produced little, at least in terms of marketable objects, and sought to derive satisfaction, meaning, and a sense of purpose from contemplation, communion with nature, bonding with one another, et cetera (Musgrove 1974). A significant number of members of Western societies embraced a much-attenuated version of the values and mores of the counterculture. Inglehart found that “the values of Western publics have been shifting from an overwhelming emphasis on material well-being and physical security toward greater emphasis on the quality of life” (Abramson and Inglehart 1995: 19).
