Americans responded to the threats on their optimism about their financial future not by putting aside their emphasis on the self and returning to the self-denial and sacrifice of the Traditionalists but by ushering in a decade of conspicuous consumption headlined by the Yuppies (Young, Urban, Upwardly Mobile Professionals). The bestselling Yuppie Handbook announced the new rules: “The name of the game is the best—buying it, owning it, using it, eating it, wearing it, growing it, cooking it, driving it, doing whatever with it.”[26] Rather than give up their “great expectations,” Boomers turned
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