Six months into the economic meltdown, all big spenders know conspicuous consumption is out. The (new) rules forbid it! But now they're trying to convince the New York Times they've truly changed. Inside.

Where their souls maybe used to be.

It's so inspiring, this outpouring of situational ethics and socially-condoned redemption on the front page of the New York Times!

Suddenly the feelings of poors are important.

"It's disrespectful to the people who don't have much to flaunt your wealth," said Monica Dioda Hagedorn, 40, a lawyer in Atlanta who is married to an heir of the Scotts Miracle-Gro fortune. "I have plenty of dresses to last me 10 years."

And all those sumptuous rich-people bacchanals feel like maybe wrong, somehow?

"It's kind of like we all went overboard," said... Sacha Taylor, a fixture on the charity circuit in this gala-happy city... "And we're trying to get back to where we should have been."

Even workaday spendthrifts give quotes like "it's kind of funny, but I feel much more satisfied with the things money can't buy" now that they have far less money with which to buy things.

Send an email to Ryan Tate, the author of this post, at ryan@gawker.com.