Is the recession causing any rethinking of attitudes to spending that might actually last?
We know that saving is the new vogue but might there be a new attitude once the recession is over, as over it will surely be one day.
There have been allegations that consumerism prompted the rampant spending that's now led to all our woes, including the bursting of the bubble and global warming.
Accordingly, the argument is, if we consume less we will be on a more sustainable path.
Rachel Kesel is one of the founders of a group called The Compact which describes itself as a flight from consumerism.
The members of the group have all agreed not to buy new products of any kind and to borrow, barter or buy used instead. Business Daily's Steve Evans asked her if eschewing consumption was some sort of guilt trip.
Listen Listen to Rachel Kesel (1 min 57 secs)
While the idea of not consuming from choice might seem very bizarre to anybody in a poor country or a poor part of a rich one - what signs are there that consumers might not be consuming as much as they were?
Martin Raymond lectures on fashion and branding, and founded a company called The Future Laboratory, which tries to identify products that will become trendy.
Listen Listen to Martin Raymond (4 mins 29 secs)
If the recession is changing the attitudes of the haves to the things they must buy in the rich world, then is it changing attitudes to money, in general?
According to the Bible it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God".
Christians may debate the meaning of that endlessly, but on the face of it, it seems like an exhortation against wealth.
As America enters recession, how might attitudes change? One of America's most prominent preachers, the Reverend Jim Wallis, thinks the recession offers possibilities for hopeful change.
Listen Listen to the Reverend Jim Wallis (4 mins 11 secs)
The desire to spend conspicuously perhaps came from wider changes in society, or at least the society of those who looked to the United States.
The last 30 years has seen what is sometimes called the New Gilded Age, the new age of huge wealth in contrast to the years around WWII when inequality diminished.
Between 1979 and 2005, the real income of the average American rose by only 13% but the income of the richest 0.1% of Americans rose by a massive 296%.
Andrew Oswald, economics professor at Warwick University in Britain, explained how incomes at the very top rose so fast.
Listen Listen to Andrew Oswald (3 mins 31 secs)
First broadcast on Business Daily on 5 March 2009