S p e c u l a t i o n about p r o g r e s s , if the foregoing argument is correct, has reached something of a dead end. As the twentieth century draws to a close, we find it more and more difficult to mount a compelling defense of the idea of progress; but we find it equally difficult to imagine life without it.

The best line of defense, as we have seen, links progress to an indefinite expansion of the demand for consumer goods. The expansion of demand, however, presupposes conditions that no longer obtain. It presupposes a constant revision of material expectations, a never-ending redefinition of luxuries as necessities, continual incorporation of new groups into the

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