The author analyses the social and economic changes of the past 20 years and examines the functions of culture with special respect to readings as indicators of value orietation:`Time studies of the Central Statistical Office from 1976, 1986 and 1993 gave the frame of reference of the study. The majority the Hungarian population spends its income on the satisfaction of its basic needs, while cultural products are almost unaffordable due to the increase of their price. Worse financial status leads to Ievelling, and consequently to homogenisation as it was seen in recent years. It is remarkable that while between 1976 and 1986 graduates were reading considerably more nonfiction, i.e. technical and scientific literature, differences have almost ceased by 1993, and the motivation for permanent learning is not stronger in graduates than among those who finished secondary school only. Academic training and a more marked taste reduce the rate of popular readings to some extent. There is, however, practically no difference between those with secondary and elementary educational background. In county towns 3/4 of readings is popular, entertaining literature. The reduction of material goods has been accompanied by a cut of time spent with intellectual reproduction, a decay in the quality of readings, i.e. the devaluation of symbolic capital for the past decade.