DOLLARS AND NONSENSE

Can American remain most powerful nation when it's in the service business?

The question gains in importance as one surveys the evolving American economy, which is  expected to rebound in early 2006.

The pending boom, however, is occurring despite declines in the manufacturing sector, which has, as we all know, has been outsourced to China.  The rebound is due entirely to increases in the service sector.

Since the exigencies of the service business are well-known to all who participate in it, in terms of deferential client service, this paradigmatic change provokes the question, How can America retain its position as the most powerful nation on earth when its economic foundation depends on client service?

Will America find itself, as all competitively successful service providers do, genuflecting before its global patrons?  Or can the nation retain their patronage while continuing to pretend it’s the boss?

The cause seems doubtful at best.  A Reuters poll of 2,500 executives in the service sector reveals widespread doubt.  One advertising executive quipped, “I’ll tell you what the service sector is. It’s the business of being as dictatorial as you can be on your knees.”

While there is widespread concern about the loss of its status as the world’s only superpower, the answer to America’s evolving destiny on the economic front will, apparently, only become sufficiently clear as the nation makes more progress down what one respondent had the temerity to call “this moronically misbegotten road to creeping subjugation.”

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