service economy

(Newser) - America is rapidly transforming into a post-materialist world—and that’s put a screeching halt to our economic growth, argues David Brooks of the New York Times . To prove the point, he imagines two men. The first lived from 1900 to 1974, watching the world move from horse-drawn buggies to...

(Newser) - These days, it’s patriotic to be a shopaholic. “We neurotically monitor the retailers' latest financial results and our identification with the fortunes of the big stores seems absolute,” writes Andrew Martin of the Guardian. But Martin suspects we’re just waking up to the fundamental absurdity of...

(Newser) - American communities once reliant on the manufacturing industry are increasingly being supported by the growing healthcare sector, the Wall Street Journal reports. Over the past 10 years, the former paper-mill town of Bangor, Maine, lost 3,700 factory jobs—but gained 3,500 healthcare jobs, a hopeful sign for an...