The Service Revolution
Are we running out of physical-goods markets? The author shows how a large and growing market for commodities lies in the development of service systems. ALTHOUGH critics lament the apparent thing-mindedness of the "consumption carousel,"' business managements, workers, consumers, financiers, promoters, and government groups unconsciously have combined to turn the wheel of consumption in a new direction. The thesis of this article is that the United States is well advanced into a service revolution that may in time bring to its beneficiaries wholly new quantitative and qualitative patterns of service consumption. The growth of services is a logical result of several converging forces. As the marginal attraction of services increases faster than that for more goods, entreprenurial capital and business managements are turning more to the development of service markets. Because the expansion of these markets requires business organization, managements borrow applicable techniques that were successful in the mass production of goods. In the short run, the emerging service systems both limit the range and impersonalize the nature of services. In the long run, it is possible that a desirable proliferation of services will develop, paralleling that for commodities.