Leisure and Consumer Behavior: A “Social Indicators” Update

It is reported that Americans have revised the traditional definition of success. According to that view, wasteful materialism is increasingly being rejected along with a lifelong competition for wealth and privilege. Instead, nonmaterial standards of personal growth and development are favored. Along with such a development, there is a growing skepticism of big governmental and private organizations. There is a growing recognition that social values, attitudes and beliefs will have a decisive influence on economic growth. Growth is no longer a dominant value and increasingly the public is concerned with the price tag of growth in terms of other values that are considered important. (Conrad Taeuber, 1981: viii)