On Design Thinking on MOOC today, students were introduced the the evolution of the the Economy. See the graphic below:

Joseph Pine and James Gilmore suggested in their book ‘the Experience Economy’, that the economic value creation in developed countries went from an agrarian economy, to an industrial economy, to a service economy, to an experience economy.

The agrarian economy is mainly concerned with producing and dealing with commodities. Extracting natural resources is here the major economic driver. The value creation in the industrial economy is based on the production of goods. When the goods market is saturated the next level of value creation is the service economy, which refers to an increased importance on the delivery of services. And last but not least there is the experience economy, where the experience becomes a significant economical differentiator.

The reason could be seen in a natural evolution, that as soon as basic needs are met, humans seem to strive for improvement and development.