Coda

Abstract

Most of us spend a great deal of time shopping, and except for groceries and other consumables, we tend to keep what we buy. So we end up accumulating a lot of “stuff,” even if we give a lot of it away to Goodwill or other charities. It’s only when we move and start packing up what we have in our houses and apartments into cardboard boxes that we recognize how much we have. But our “collecting” mentality may be changing. As a result of the economic recession of 2008 and 2009 Americans have scaled back the amount of goods they purchase and have actually begun saving money, now that they cannot use their homes as ATM machines anymore. As President Barack Obama explained recently, the days of “voracious” overconsumption in the United States are over.