20 
The undermining of major principles was indeed apt to 
create uncertainty. The crisis of the smoke-st%k industry 
was already felt and saturation was experienced in various 
fields. Equally there was uncertainty about the way 
consumption was going to develop further. How would further 
increases in income be spent? This is a field for 
innovation like others and therfore full of risks and 
hesitations. ( The young people of the preceding decade 
had created certain patterns , but this movement seems 
to have become less vigoraus. It had been an example, 
however, that consumptiontoo^is a pioneering affair ). 
It was this kind of difficulties which the 
burocratic concerns and the politicians were ill prepared 
to face. This is true for the U.S as well as for Europe. 
The optimist may have been inclined to say that the structural 
crisis will force people to learn and to devise better 
forms of organisation. UNfortunately what happened in 
the last years does not look like learning. The young 
people thrown out into the street certainly do not 
larn industrial skills and the big shots seem to have 
spent these years in forgetting whatever they knew before.