Towards a Service Economy?

Abstract

Bell writes:

… if an industrial society is defined by the quantity of goods as marking a standard of living, the post-industrial society is marked by the quality of life as measured by the services and amenities — health, education, recreation and the arts — which are now deemed desirable and possible for everyone. The word ‘services’ disguises different things and in the transformation of industrial to post-industrial society there are several different stages. First … a necessary expansion of transportation and public utilities as auxiliary service in the movement of goods. … Second, in the mass consumption of goods and the growth of population, there is an increase of distribution, finance, real estate and insurance, the traditional centres of white collar employment. Third, as national incomes rise as in the theorem of Christian Engel … the proportion of money devoted to food at home begins to drop, and marginal increments are used first for durables and then for luxury items, recreation and the like. Thus a third sector, that of personal services, begins to grow; restaurants, hotels, auto-services, travel, entertainments, sports, as people’s horizons expand and new wants and tastes develop … two areas that are fundamental to [the good life] — health and education. (Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, pp. 127–8)