Now that the United States manufacturing base has eroded to next to nothing, and with the sharp spikes in the price of commodity items (owing largely to the fact that these are priced in heavily devalued dollars in commodity markets), the latest economic crisis is causing acute pain in the service industry [1].
What does it take to raise our collective consciousness about this? Well, it appears to be that Starbucks is poised to create what amounts to an inconvenience for many - having to drive out of the way to get a cup of second-rate, boutique-brewed coffee. This is not to trivialize the experience of the people losing their jobs; however, it does point up the sort of thing that will stir the populace into action.
I sort of had to laugh when I found out that people were organizing to "Save Our Starbucks," as if a community would be endangered by such an economic sucker punch. Could it possibly be that Starbucks has overextended itself, has become a victim of its own exuberance, and that they have passed the point of market saturation in many locales?
Never mind that businesses that have had major presence in Tennessee, such as Murray [2] or Carrier [3] or White Lily [4] or Electrolux [5] or Whirlpool [6] or Modine [7] or Superior Industries [8] or Brown Shoe Company [9] or Aleris [10] or Horace Small Apparel [11] or Huttig [12] or Federal-Mogul [13] or Siegel-Robert Automotive South [14] or Eastman Chemical [15] or GM/Saturn [16] or La-Z-Boy [17] or RH Donnelly [18] or Goodyear [19] or JC Penney [20] or Paccar [21] or Fedders [22] or Levi Strauss [23] have reduced or eliminated thousands of good paying jobs over the last decade...
And it occurs to me: We, as a country, don't really make goods anymore. We make coffee.
That's pretty weak tea for what used to be the most developed country in the world.