During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Harvard sociologist Carle Zimmerman took a close look at the "American standard of living" and made some startling pre- dictions for the future. In regard to the increased urbaniza- tion, commercialization, and social mobility of that time, Zimmerman wrote: If a standard of living consists of values to be found entirely in the oods which the individual consumes, we shall proba %ly continue our present sensational t pe of life as l...