Source: http://nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/02sbux.html
Quote: The plan builds on an earlier decision to close 100 stores, which are included in Tuesday’s numbers. Starbucks is retrenching in an effort to recapture the once-mighty growth it built upon venti soy lattes.
A cavalcade of economic troubles, from imploding housing markets to rising gas prices, has pinched consumers, hurting not just Starbucks but nearly all retailers. The chain is struggling to attract customers for the afternoon frappuccinos they once bought eagerly.
Discussion Questions:
1) When you think about your own spending, have you had to re-prioritize anything recently? If so, why did you change the way you did?
2) What other sort of choices (not just financial) do you make everyday that indicate what your primary values are?
3) While it's most likely that people, when the downward trend changes, will just return to their old ways, what can be done to make the most of this opportunity to permenantly reshape people's values?
What Does A Non-Consumerism Economy Look Like?
Our economy is based on consuming. If we were a bug the one that first comes to mind, for me, is the locust. We tend to swarm in and consume the life out of things.
This get's me thinking about your 3rd question where you talk about reshaping values. One area that, I think, needs reshaping is our consuming. But, what does an economy not based on consumerism look like? If we are going to help people reshape their lives we need to know what other options even look like to head in that direction.
Part of the reason people fall into old habits is that's what they know. We do what we know. In order to change we need to learn something different. But, what does different in the economic sense look like?
non-consumerism
Sort of funny that you'd ask that given this ask. It seems Obama might be trying to offer, at least at some level, a post-consumer vision for what life should look like. The question is, "What does that look like when translated over to economics?"
I'd also say, beyond it being what we know, we also fall back into those patterns because we are selfish and that approach is very self-serving.