I believe that all of the causes listed by the previous writers are
contributory. I would like to add one of my own:
This century has seen a much larger proportion of the economic
participants in the developed countries achieved a basic level of freedom
from material want. These people then turned their attention to their
social wants, which are more comparative in nature (e.g., to be in the top
10% of a particular population segment). Advances in communication made it
easier to propagate the doings of opinion leaders for ready emulation and
accelerated this process.
The problem is that not everyone can be above average. Some of the causes
elsewhere cited (such as demographics and the recovery of worldwide
producer competition from the devastation of war) erased the headroom to
even sustain the illusion.
As someone has already noted, we are transitioning out of an artificial
situation and the transition is not always pleasant.
sr
--srojak@ix.netcom.com (Stephen Rojak )
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>