Excerpt from a Future History Book, or "whatever happened to shopping?"

The popularity of shopping depended on the ancient urge for the modern, that old wish for something new.

No one had considered the possibility that this urge for the new might actually be turned on shopping itself, or that fashion might go out of fashion.

Yet people gradually decided that they had too much stuff and clutter and turned away from the malls. Consumption never again drove the economy like it had throughout the 20th century.

For generations, economic goods had implied economic goods to have. Early in the 21st century, communities realized that people were ready to focus more on economic goods to do. The stuff of life was replaced by experience, and having became less important than doing. As communities adjusted, it was not just philosophers who saw this as positive. Even economists eventually realized that this was progress.