Economist Saw the Good in America's Consumer Culture
Correction: Aug. 2 obituary for economist Stanley Lebergott incorrectly reported his age at the time of death. He was 91. (Published 8/4/2009)</br></br>Stanley Lebergott, 93, a retired economist and professor whose influential books and articles maintained that consumerism had brought positive changes to the American standard of living, died July 24 of cardiac arrest at his home in Middletown, Conn.</br></br>Mr. Lebergott, a former government economist and Wesleyan University professor, took issue with those who disdained "consumerism" as wasteful, pointless, even immoral. Consumption, he maintained, has always been an expression of human longing rather than mere acquisitiveness.</br></br>Reviewing his book, "Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century" (1993), Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley praised Mr. Lebergott's "lucidity, wit and forthrightness."</br></br>In Yardley's words: "Lebergott argues that the great American shopping spree is not mere self-indulgence but an essential part of what has been a remarkably successful pursuit of happiness. He believes that rather than focus on the self-indulgent aspects of consumerism, we do better service to the truth if we credit it with permitting Americans to liberate themselves from the onus of repetitive, unrewarding labor."