I'd have to say the '80s were more greedy at first, but the late '90s destroyed the '80s in materialism.
Overall, a tie.  The '00s are even more materialistic, with all this celebrity gossip and bling bling crap.

My personal experience of the 80's was many people investing into saving for retirement. Of course CD rates were quite attractive and many invested as a way of getting a decent return without a lot of risk.
It seemed in the 90's it was all about stocks...buy, sell, buy, sell, blah, blah, blah.

The 80's, but the 90's are up there too.

Definitely the 80s. That's why we had shows like Dynasty and Dallas to demonstrate it.

Every decade has been a'me' decade, through out the history of the human race.

But, I think what made the 80's seem worse was the media attention and the amount of consumer goods flooding the market that were primarily seen as status symbols. In the early 80's everyone who was ANYONE just HAD to have a VCR. Without one you were almost a social pariah. And if you were a kid and didnt have an Atari, well, your life was ruined. I think it got more attention becauuse the kids were becoming HUGE consumers and they were the ones that wanted most of the items being bought.

I also think the 80's had massive attention focussed upon the 'Me' people in the later half because of the 1987 stock exchange crash that sent many a high roller, such as Australia's Allan Bond, into a free fall.

There was a backlash against the 'Me' people who had everything by the people who struggled to make ends meet. I guess it was a popular backlash because, as you can see on popular TV at the time, more real and gritty TV shows became popular...And here in Australia, the need to bring down a 'high roller' was termed the Tall Poppy Syndrome, named after an Australian model/designer who failed dramatically in her business dealings.



Now, in the 90's, I think we became more of a consumer society...But I dont think it was all about individual. Yes, sure we bought more items, but we, as a people, gave more to charity because we could afford it.

And now, the 00's...Yes, still consumer driven, but far removed from the 'I must have it because I want it' way of thinking. If we like it, and can afford it, we buy it. But we also give copius amounts to the needy. The Tsunami and Katrina disasters have shown the world that its not ALL about the individual, its just that, sometimes, we like to indulge our primitive selves.


Sorry about the length.






AN

Definetly the 80s...... In several ways the 80s were the most destructive decade ever.......

The 1970's was the 'Me' decade. The 1980's was the 'Me, me, me' decade!  ;D  ;D  ;D

The 80s were the decade of greed. Black Monday, the Cabbage Patch doll craze, “Wall Street”, everything with America’s favorite then yuppie Trump, and Savings and Loans Crisis ring any bells?

Naturally, the ‘Power of Me’ belief that Boomers first had in the 70s spilled into the 80s and some of their children (Xennials) adopted the notion in the 80s. So, Xennials  still held on to that belief in the very early 90s (1990-1991). Yuppism died in mid 1991 during the early 90s recession. Today, the 90s aren’t known for mall culture, Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”, or the whole “Die Yuppie Scum Die” shirts like they were to us from 1990 to 1991.