Musings on the service economy

Saturday on RadioNation with Laura Flanders found Flanders in Nevada. (She's there for today's show as well.) With a variety of guests, she covered a variety of issues. (And people who blog at her site got a special treat when blogger Cujo turned out to be in the audience.) The issues that stood out to us the most were discussions of the economy.

"Laura Flanders" and "living wage" go together like "Laura Flanders" and "Stop the war" because it's a topic that she's long spoken of (including as the host of Your Call). So we weren't expecting to be shocked but we were. A male guest stated that manufacturing jobs were gone and not coming back.

We don't dispute that. And we've heard it for many years. Bruce Springsteen sang of it in "My Hometown" ("Foreman says these jobs are going, boys/ And they ain't coming back . . ."). But it was a shock none the less. We all fell silent. (We're usually listening and discussing the edition at the same time. If we're really lucky and on schedule, we're working on our first piece and listening at the same time.)

Again, we don't dispute it. We've heard it before. We've heard it sung, we've heard it loudly, but there was something so plain spoken and calm in the voice of the man who said. On national radio, no less. Spoke the truth simply and plainly and maybe that what was so shocking?

Can a nation succeed on a service economy? The destruction of the manufacturing base happened first in the inner cities. Now it's across the nation. We no longer build things. (The entertainment industry being one of the few exceptions.)

As a service economy, Flanders and her guests pointed out, the unioniziation of the industry is very important if workers are going to earn a living wage. But what does it mean for the nation?

We started brainstorming on how a nation could make money when they have no goods to sell?
One way is tourism. But we're a nation whose actions have hardly said, "Welcome" to visiters.
Not in the last few years. Certainly any Muslims who worried about the way they'd be treated at airports and elsewhere would have a valid reason to be concerned. As our ambassador to the world, Bully Boy's made it clear that his administration is keen on exporting oppression (disgusied as "fair trade") and war. Are those calling cards?

We can think of Paris, we can think of London . . . a host of cities throughout the world that have images that play in your mind. We're just not seeing D.C. on par with Rome. There is the entertainment industry in California and the amusement parks in California and Florida. Those might be travel destinations to the rest of the world. There's NYC. Possibly Las Vegas. But of the forty-eight mainland states, we're not getting the feeling that there are a lot of hot spots, must sees, for the rest of the world. Maybe we're too used to our surroundings? Or maybe Witness had a massive impact in other countries and people are dying to come to America and visit Amish country?

Maybe Roswell could be opened up and we could dub it our Stonehenge?

Us, we could vacation in any state and have a great time. But we're not hopping an international flight. And we're not seeing a lot of drawing cards. Probably Nahsville would popular with foreign tourists. Nashville's unique to America. Dallas for those interested in the JFK assassination. But otherwise . . .

(If Detroit would truly honor Motown, it could probably pull in a large number of the English.)

But Bully Boy's sullied our world image. And we're not seeing mythic places that could pull in people from all over the world. Yes, we get immigrants all the time who come here to make a home in the land of the free. As a travel destination, with or without the Bully Boy, land of the free strikes us as about as marketable as Switzerland: Land of the Neutral!

"Mommy, this summer, can we go to the land of the free?"

We're not hearing it. We have some nice slopes in Utah and Colorado but Europes ski destinations are better known. Does that mean we'll be everyone's fall back destination? If they can't book in the Swiss Alps, they'll end up in Aspen?

We're being a bit flippant. (A bit? Hey, we've got a smart ass attitude at this site. Didn't you ever notice?) But we are serious about this. How does money come into a country that exports no manufacturing?

Which raised our second issue: revenues. How does the government pay the bills? Corporations already pay token fees at best. The burden is pushed onto the individual citizen. A trend that's been going on for sometime. If Bully Boy gets his wish and destroy's the estate tax while providing additional tax breaks to the rich, exactly how much of every working American's check will be needed for the government to run in some form? (Bare minimum, we're assuming.)

The service economy is here. Congress could step in and stop rewarding those who manufacture overseas but we don't see that happening. So the service economy is here and the manufacturing is gone. What will that mean for America and Americans?

Here's what we do know:

SUNDAY, Feb 19, 2006
RadioNation with Laura Flanders will broadcast live from:
the offices of PLAN
(the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada)
821 Riverside Drive
Reno, Nevada 89503
www.planevada.org.