While Beethoven was composing his ninth symphony, he lived in an apartment on the top floor of a building. Being that this was before elevators, he would receive friends at a nearby coffeehouse, "By the Golden Pear". In the 1920s, one could see European mathematicians at coffeehouses discussing the Reimann Hypotheses, or phycists discussing the new quantum mechanics. The coffeehouses even accommodated these people by covering their tables with white, easy to write on tablecloths. God I miss European style coffeehouses. It seems as if the entire world is monetizing everything, and seeing places like these in the US is more of a rarity every day. I wonder, is this how the dark ages began, with the indirect attack on mostly poor intellectuals?
If only the poor intellectuals had a way of sharing without leaving home. Maybe some sort of smoke signals or something, amongst each other. Or maybe a series of buttons one could push to spell out ide... Oh, wait a minute.
What are you complaining about ? European coffehouses are Chinese teahouses today. The US Dollars, European Euros, British pounds and Swiss Francs are moving south and east. You simply have to accept that the Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and Russian ( and other ) worker wants to have one part of the cake, too.
I am not sure I follow. Are you saying that unless we create more wealth than currently exists in the world, that of this finite amount of wealth in the world, that all we have done is brought the rest of the world out of poverty at the expense of the first world? I don't buy this at all. Connect the dots for me, because otherwise this is the biggest hand waving statement the world has ever seen. If you are correct however, then Dark Ages are almost guaranteed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages
Well, lately the OECD held a seminar on "Shifting Wealth: The New Shape of the World Economy" : http://www.oecd.org/document/14/0,3343,en_2649_33959_44628110_1_1_1_37413,00.html A lot of interesting questions have been raised like :  Has âShifting Wealthâ led to a world-wide reduction in poverty and inequality?  How will the crisis impact on the emerging middle class?  What are the current prospects for internal migration and labour markets development in China? The âshifting wealthâ phenomenon has enormous implications for global development. It brings with it opportunities as well as potential pitfalls for developing countries, and also raises questions about the adequacy of the current system of global governance. Key questions:  Is this just the beginning of the shift in wealth or is there much more to come?  Can and should the Chinese development model be replicated by other countries?  Post-crisis, post-Doha, post-Copenhagen: what does global governance look like in a world of shifting wealth? http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/55/44644664.pdf I am not afraid of wealth distribution. I am simply adapting to a new economic world order. Means, I have no US centric view, I have no specific European view. I have moreover a "globetrotter" view ( in lack of another word)...
Actually, what exactly does shifting wealth have to do with the monetization of everything? For example, I read somewhere that the biggest cost to the health industry are people that have at most months to live. The accountants and economists would tell you that we should just euthanize them as it would be cheaper and they will be dead soon anyway, or just let them die. What is the correct answer to this dilema in an age where everything has a price?
Das machten wir shon in sachsenhausen fast jede woche wenn wir gingen bier trinken, schach spielen and bumsen mit deutsche mädchen. Immer viel spaÃ
Adolf Loos called it "being at home yet not in your apartment"... it's a wonderful thing. As a student in Vienna, I used to hang out there, everyone had their favorite one. You had free newspapers from all over the world, you could have one single coffee, stay for 5 hours and they would never bother you but bring you a fresh glass of water on a silver tray when they saw you had drunk yours.... that is called civilized. Starbucks is but a poor caricature of that culture.
Loos nailed it. The mindset is completely different. I remember when I was younger and took my first trip to Europe, friends were afraid I might never come back. I don't know how they do it. I wish I had the prose to describe it, but maybe it is as simple as taking pride and a long term view on your business instead of worrying about PnL next quarter. Comparing SBUX to Zur Goldenen Birne is, well, it shouldn't even be in the same sentence together. When SBUX has been around for even 100 years, we can talk again.