Trends and Entertainment

Video: America’s “Great Unwind”

One should always be skeptical when a guy who makes his living from selling people stuff they don’t need starts talking about “empowering” consumers and how great it is that people are shopping less.And there are some annoying, ad-guy aspects to the talk  John Gerzema, chief insights officer of Young and Rubicam, gave at the TED conference.

That said, he’s not wrong. From the start of the downturn, we saw changes developing in society—people would think differently about money (check out our interview with futurist Robbie Blinkoff), conspicuous consumption would fallout of favor, we would become more community-minded. (Notwithstanding my recent piece on how angry and self-centered Americans are becoming.) If you want to get a better feel for the Zeitgeist, it’s worth watching the video about The Great Unwind that is still taking place.

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