Downsizing will be the coming decade's biggest trend. Large companies have been doing it for a decade. Government claims to be doing it now. Families and individuals are next.

Not that families will start laying off unproductive teenagers, or closing outdated houses, but that people will change their value system in the coming decade and terms like small, specialty, and quality will be of greatest value.

For instance, the downsizing trend will affect housing. The notion that every succeeding house should be bigger and better will collapse, even among women. Boomers who are rapidly approaching the empty nest will quit asking "How much house can we afford"' and start asking "What do we really need?" This will radically alter the housing market in the next 20 years. Smaller, efficient high-quality zero-maintenance housing will sell at a premium.

The downsizing movement will affect shopping habits too. Not that people will downsize from Grand Cherokees to bicycles, but you can bet an increasing number of people will start driving only two -- perhaps even one -- car per family. Malls and superstores will feel it especially as people devalue huge conglomerate shopping. In 20 years, today's malls will be ghost towns worse off than small town downtowns. People will shop in smaller, easily accessed specialty shops where the employees actually know something about the