The Washington Post

Americans are either in the throes of a materialistic orgy in which “acquiring possessions has become an end in itself,” or else we are witnessing the beginning of a return to the simple, values-driven life.

It depends on which magazine you read.

Bruce Baldwin, a psychologist writing in the April issue of the USAir magazine, sees an America in which our “wants” and “needs” have become confused, things substitute for sounder values and possessions define self-esteem.

Time magazine’s Janice Castro, on the other hand, sees us as emerging from “a ten-year bender of gaudy dreams and godless consumerism” and, at last, “thinking hard about what matters” in our lives: family, friends, rest, recreation and spirituality.

So which is the real America? Maybe both.

There can be no doubting Baldwin’s contention that easy credit and persuasive advertising have combined with the rise of dual-income families to produce a culture in which adequacy no longer suffices: not accurate watches, attractively serviceable raincoats, or reliable cars with decent gas mileage, but Rolexes, Burberrys and Mercedes Benzes.

We talk “quality” but, like the inner-city kid whose absurdly expensive sneakers and starter jackets have us shaking our heads in dismay, we buy things as much for letting our peers see how well we’re doing as for the efficiency, beauty and durability of the things themselves.

But Castro says we’re doing it less. Signs of revolt against crass consumerism substitute a pattern “as genuine as Grandma’s quilt,” she reports.

Successful men and women are leaving their high-powered, well-paid jobs for humbler work that gives them more time with their families; wives are abandoning careers to take up homemaking.

Consumer credit fell by .6 percent—$342 million—in December, and a whopping $2.4 billion in January.

Domestic beer, mixed-breed dogs, family reunions and volunteerism, says Castro, are replacing look-at-me spending. The 90s may come to be known as the “We Decade.”

Cynics might tell you that our down-shifting has other, less noble, causes—including a recession that has people either out of work or else nervous about their job security.

Part of the trend Castro sees may be pure fad, as empty of deeper meaning as earlier shifts to jogging, oat bran and lite beer.

Maybe we’re finally starting to recognize subliminally a fact that seems to have escaped our consciousness: that the 1980s were a period of downward mobility—declining real income—for most American families.

But it’s possible to doubt Castro’s “humble makings of a revolution in progress” while at the same time hoping she’s right. Rampant materialism, as Baldwin notes, has costs beyond the erosion of bank accounts.

“It can seriously affect an individual and a couple’s ability to live a happy and healthy life together…. In many distressed marriages and dysfunctional families, couples have a myriad of ‘things.’

“What they do not have for one another, nor for the children, is time to enjoy life together, to talk and to share interesting experiences.”

Castro says it’s all changing. She cites a Time/CNN poll that found 69 percent of the respondents wanting to “slow down and live a more relaxed life.”

A majority complained that earning a living takes so much effort that it’s hard to find time to enjoy life.

And 89 percent cited the importance of spending time with their families, 56 percent wanted more time for personal interests and hobbies, while only 13 percent rated it important to keep up with fashions and trends.

Maybe the trend she cites is real, but Baldwin’s description seems closer—uncomfortably so—to home, and a lot of us could do worse than take his advice:

“Begin a series of discussions with your spouse. Ask yourself questions and then answer them. For example: ‘Why are we living like this? What do we really want out of our living like this?’

“‘How are we going to get there? What is really fulfilling in this short life we have?'”

I’d be surprised if the psychic and spiritual welfare of the children didn’t figure prominently in the answers, or if the couples failed to discover a mutual interest in life’s simpler pleasures.