Changes

Cohen lauds the reinvigorated consumer movement of the 1960s, which sought to protect people from unsafe products and curb industrial excesses like pollution. In a sense, this activism can be seen as limiting the range of options on the market, by questioning what levels of danger consumers may be subjected to or actively pursue. In any event, this surge of public concern seems to have reduced in strength by the late 1970s, when Jimmy Carter disdained Americans’ “worship of self-indulgence and consumption” and was promptly replaced by a GE spokesman who cut taxes.

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