In these hard times, those whose job it is to part us from our money in the shops are beginning to describe the retailing experience as a family activity, a way of relaxing — absolutely nothing to do with conspicuous consumption, you understand.

The word “luxury”, we are told, sends the wrong message nowadays and is being quietly phased out of promotional material. Bling is over.

Rory Sutherland of advertising agency Ogilvy even predicts there will be a trend towards the modest lifestyles reputedly favoured by Lutherans and Swedes.

What do you think? Do you believe the credit crisis will have any lasting impact on people’s attitudes when it comes to the relentless pursuit of material gain?

Or will we be back melting plastic in the shops as soon as the “all clear” siren is sounded?

A major survey of social attitudes reveals that enthusiasm for equality between men and women is on the slide in Britain.

In the 1990s, around 50 percent of women and 51 percent of men said they thought family life would not suffer if a woman went to work. Now the figures have fallen to 46 percent of women and 42 percent of men.

The decline is even more pronounced in the United States.

“It is conceivable that opinions are shifting as the shine of the ’super-mum’ syndrome wears off, and the idea of women juggling high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortals,” said the survey’s author, Professor Jacqueline Scott of Cambridge University.

Do you agree?