David, studies show that as "developing countries" grow richer their populations tend to assume the same mass consumption tastes that we Americans have pioneered.
I remember many years ago talking to a European Communist who was visiting in Chicago. Borrowing from Eric Hofer (The True Believer), I mentioned America was the first mass-consumption based society in history. It was the first time resources and freedom existed in enough supply to let the average man and woman express his or her tastes. The result has been Disneyland, not philosophers sipping coffee and writing poetry. Our American intellectuals, some of them at least, have drunk the cup of European snobbery.
Anyway, this Communist had no comeback. Maybe he quit Communism, since it purports to advance the working class.
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