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The Flight From America

By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2005.


Richard Florida's new book warns that an isolated and hostile post-9/11 America may find itself on the losing end of the global competition for the ultimate economic prize: creative talent.
The Flight Of The Creative Class
The Flight Of The Creative Class
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When Richard Florida published his upbeat Rise of the Creative Class in 2002, he became the instant darling of progressives everywhere. What's not to like about a man who says diversity, tolerance, and a vibrant cultural life are required ingredients for economic success? And for hip, well-educated professionals, comfortably ensconced in liberal meccas like San Francisco and New York, it bestowed a brand new label, "cultural creatives," that confirmed their privileged position in the new post-'90s economy.

Florida's latest offering, however, is neither as cheery nor as reassuring. While the emphasis on human creativity -- and the concomitant need for tolerance -- remains unchanged, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent offers a grimmer and more nuanced vision of both America and the world.

This Richard Florida is worried. For one, he fears that the nation's turn to the right -- hostility to foreigners, widening income divide, social conservatism -- endangers the single most important source of U.S. power: its ability to attract global talent. But even when he looks beyond the borders, Florida finds other reasons to worry. Unlike Thomas Friedman, he see the dark side of the global creative economy, whose tendency to concentrate economic wealth must be recognized and controlled for the greater good. The same thriving cities, brimming with talent and ingenuity can easily turn into creative ghettoes that increasingly exclude greater parts of humanity.

Richard Florida spoke to AlterNet from his home in Washington D.C.

In your book, you describe a world where, for the first time, the mobility of capital is being matched by the mobility of labor, at least a certain kind of high-skilled labor. So what are the implications for the way we redefine economic power?

There are two things. For a long time, economists thought in terms of comparative advantage and raw materials. Then in the more recent period, two theories emerged. One was a theory associated with Robert Solo -- it's a really good theory -- that says economic growth is really dependent on how much technology you have.

The second theory that came up in the more recent years is that if you want to grow an economy you have to invest in human capital or talent. And there's increasing proof, in fact, that this is true. But because most economists tend to view either technology or talent as "stocks" that countries are endowed with. All my theory really says is that these are not "stocks" but "flows."

The main thing affecting the flow [of talent and technology] is not, in fact, your education system. A perfect example of that is California. California has for decades under-invested in its primary and secondary education system, and yet has these spectacular universities and a vibrant labor market. It's a great open place to live, and attracts people from all over the world.

What I say in my work is that there's this third T -- apart from Technology and Talent -- called Tolerance. The reason this third T is an important part of economic growth and economic advantage is because it attracts talented creative people from all races, ethnicities, income ranges, -- whether they're white, black, Hispanic, Latino, Asia, Indian, women, men, single, married, or gay. So places that are the most tolerant, the most diverse, the most, in words of the new book, "proactively inclusive" have an addition economical advantage.

And, in fact, that's what I believe has really been the core of America's economic advantage for over the course of at least a century, more likely two centuries. It's not been a lot of raw materials, a big market, or just been our American Yankee ingenuity or even our stock of technology. We, in fact, imported most of our technology in the early days from England and Germany. It's really been our emphasis on being open -- providing economic opportunity, for sure, but being open to people, culturally and politically.

My message is that this is really the core axis of economic competition. And my fear is -- I'll just be quite candid -- that there's absolutely no awareness of this in Washington D.C. It's so terrifying.

Or even if there is an awareness of the economic consequences of intolerance, it doesn't seem to change the outcome. In Ohio, for example, they successfully passed this sweeping anti-gay proposition in 2004 despite warnings from the business community that it would force many of them to relocate -- and this in a state that has its share of economic woes. How do you explain that?

What we typically see in America -- in the media -- as political polarization or culture war is really fundamental class divide. It's as big as the class divide that haunted during the birth of the Industrial Revolution, when the rise of the great working class was stifled by a booming, wealth-creating industrial capitalism. What Roosevelt said -- like him or not -- was that we could only keep this industrial engine moving by including the regular blue-collar working person who heretofore had toiled in heinous conditions at substandard wages in "satanic mills."

What's happened with the rise of the creative economy is the benefits of that economy have been very concentrated in about 30 percent of the workforce -- those of us who work in the creative economy (scientists, engineers, people who work in arts, culture, entertainment, writers) and those of us in the professions. There's certainly a great wage range within that, but on average, people who work in the creative sector of the economy make double people in the manufacturing, triple people in the service sector.


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Lakshmi Chaudhry is senior editor of Alternet.

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Florida misses the point about IT.
Posted by: hopping madbunny on May 31, 2005 4:18 AM   
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America does not have a shortage of skilled programmers and IT professionals. American corporations are allowed to import foreign workers and send jobs offshore to maximize their profits. They benefit handsomely from it even when communities do not. Foreign IT professionals are paid a fraction of what Americans are paid. There are even special visas for them.
It is counterproductive to reward firms for considering nothing more than share price value, regardless of whether they have a devastating effect on the local economy or not. (see Michael Moore's ROGER AND ME for an early depiction of this now-ubiquitous practice.) Corporations are legally required to maximize profit above all else and would be sued by their stockholders if they tried to hire workers in their own country at a fair rate insitead of going for the cheapest labor available on the other side of the world. 'Globalization' will ultimately harm the other countries that Richard Florida writes about; it is just beginning to affect Australia, which has just had its first service jobs (the telephone company) outsource for Asia.

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Europe is an intolerant place too
Posted by: philame on May 31, 2005 6:10 AM   
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This is a great article. It is true that the US is becoming less attractive globally. However, I think it overestimates Europe's ability to compete with the US on tolerance.

The UK definately is a source of competition but I am not so sure about the continent. I think northern Europe scores big for education and gay rights and Scandinavia in particular for work/life balance. This is no small feat.

But, across the board, European countries have a nasty intolerance of foreigners from non-Western countries and basically reject their own citizens of non-Western decent. This sends these highky educated, talented people packing for the US, UK and Canada. So, until continental Europe becomes more ethnically inclusive, I am not too worried about their ability to compete with the US on that front.

This doesn't mean we can relax and allow the country to become more intolerant. Our public education system definately needs a major overhaul. But in light of continental European xenophobia, I question their ability to seriously compete with NYC, SF, DC, Boston and others.

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Don't forget the dramatic rise of labor abuse in Asia
Posted by: maxpayne on May 31, 2005 8:05 AM   
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Especially in China and India. Just a few weeks back, my Indian friend brought to my attention a disturbing pattern of how IT companies, American or Indian, violate the core principles of software engineering itself by working to death each person to a job that generally requires 3 or 4 people as a teamwork. As a result, the number of software engineers in that country getting a major heart attack or even a stroke is dramatically increasing. We need to stop allowing unchecked globalism before it's too late !

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coyotekin
Posted by: coyotekin on May 31, 2005 8:21 AM   
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Hopping Madbunny is so-o-o-o right! There's shortage of skilled workers in the U.S., at least not yet! The prevalence of imported workers is because corporations reap huge profits through a new endentured servitude made possible by nonimmigrant visas that allow foreigners to come to the U.S. "temporarily." These temporary jobs can last for years, but the workers are bound to the employer, cannot convert their visas to an immigrant status without leaving the U.S., and cannot quit the job without losing legal status! And best of all, the workers are so grateful (at least at first) that they eagerly line up for the opportunity. Once they find out they are actually underpaid for the U.S. cost-of-living, it is too late.

Someone will point out that the immigration laws require that imported workers be paid the same as U.S. workers. Technically, that is true. But (of course) the availability of imported workers has served to depress the wages of ALL workers in many fields, keeping them where they were in the 1980s, or lower. And although immigration laws require that the imported worker have some skill not available locally, this is easy to get around. For example, a company can insist that it needs proficiency in some obscure software product, that any competent computer person could learn in a few hours. Providers in India make sure that their candidates have this training. The folks issuing the visas are so computer-ignorant they do not realize that the "required skill" is a sham. They issue the visas to get the company the "talent" it needs. No one ever follows up to see if the obscure software is ever actually used on the job.

In some areas, abundant imported workers have kept wages permanently deflated. A perfect example is the nursing profession. Nurses have consistently been underpaid for what they do. At first, the powers-that-be could get away with this because all nurses were women, and underpaying women is the American way. When men started to enter the profession in large numbers, you might expect that the wages would spike. Instead, the U.S. has taken to importing huge numbers of nurses (young, female nurses) from the Phillipines, where Nursing School is about the only opportunity available to talented girls, and waiting for an immigrant visa to the U.S. can take over 20 years. Result? Nurses' wages remain much lower than the work deserves. Exploitation is so much easier on U.S. soil!

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» RE: coyotekin Posted by: doctordee
Our Public Image Doesn't Help, Either
Posted by: monkeywrench on May 31, 2005 8:37 AM   
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Our new, Bush/neoCON-inspired, worldwide image as a rogue nation, willing and unashamed to pillage other countries' resources, is not exactly a top-notch recruiting tool, either. Think about it: how many good people would volunteer for employment on a pirate ship?

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» RE: Our Public Image Doesn't Help, Either Posted by: hopping madbunny
this does not make sense
Posted by: WitchyNy on May 31, 2005 9:56 AM   
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What are you guys talking about?
Poor people get screwed. Is this news to you?
That is the way our economic system is set up. And creative people are EVERYONE....it is not some rare talent...some people are just lucky enough to come from rich families who can afford education and money for 'creative' opportunities.
John Lennon said ...they let some of us (working class people) succeed to give to give the rest of us false hope.

And all this talk about science and technology being paramont...I have met lots of these guys who think developing more nuclear power and better war machines is the answer...we are destroying our enviroment and unless these creative scientists are on the right side..they are just working for Bush and his kind. It doesn't matter WHERE.

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How about wisdom communities?
Posted by: amilius on May 31, 2005 10:32 AM   
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Might it not be enough to encourage the application of knowledge in creative ways? It may be smart and still not be wise. Regard for lost potential in American communities calls for wise choices. Mr. Bush, it is readily observed, has never been accorded such a description because of his lack of heart. Mr. Florida misses the point that "Wisdom", the heartfelt application of knowledge to circumstances in creative ways, is what this country is tossing out with intolerance and conservatism. That said, his comments make much more sense than any of Friedman's self impressed gushing. Hopefully, leaders in Washington will continue to ignore Mr. Friedman and pick up Mr. Florida's book instead

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my 2 cents
Posted by: sarah on May 31, 2005 4:14 PM   
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There may be a draining of creativity in the United States, and i would be apt to blame such a development on the restrictive environment created by the Patriot Act and by extremists on both the conservative and liberal sides of the political AND social spectrum. It's scarey to think freely nowaday. You don't know who'll you'll offend or what inference people will make... and in these days in times, "what people think" about what you think (er. I think) does have an impact on the stretches one will make with both reasoning and imagination. Since both of these elements are necessary for an environment that fosters true creativity, it is indeed squelched. The sadness is that such oppressive social and political environments hinder free thought , esp. our currently sick society, where we as americans deny such social oppression exists for ourselves. In continuing to exist and attempt creativity in such environments, consciously and sub consciously, we oppress ourselves, and therefore, impede our own free thinking, creative risks, and innovations. sad... ain't we?

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Thanks, but no thanks
Posted by: canuckeh on May 31, 2005 5:25 PM   
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I am a Canadian who has lived all over the world, in many countries that are considered to have poor human rights records. I currently have two job offers in the USA (apparently my skills are in high demand), but I am probably going to decline because of the risk of false arrest and imprisonment under the "Patriot" Act. I hope America wakes up before it's too late.

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bottom line
Posted by: euroclone on Jun 1, 2005 1:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
there's never been a better time to flee the sinking ship, if you can. sure you'll miss your friends and family, but your culture's available on tap, and nostalgia is tonic. you'll find that living elsewhere is a lot like living in the states, except the cops aren't so scary, the food is better, and you're probably entitled to healthcare.

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Downsizing of the American Dream
Posted by: mebadgett on Jun 1, 2005 2:56 AM   
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Do We Want Just a Market, or a Just Market?

Check it out: http://gabrieljeffrey.com/link/1712

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Planning on leaving...
Posted by: JohnTodd on Jun 1, 2005 4:44 PM   
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I work in the entertainment industry and have found that low wages are typical in the U.S. Nobody seems to care about quality anymore, only the bottom line. I do my work to a much higher standard than many of the 'imports' that I have worked with, but they get rehired because they work for less money. THey also work slower. Hmmm, and usually their work has to be double-checked. Oh, and usually it has to be redone. Gee, it's actually costing Hollywood more money to hire them than hire me!
I'd like to move to Europe or the U.K. Anybody know how I can go about doing this? America USED TO BE the land of the free - but last week the police came to ask me about certain websites I visited. Can't name names, but gee, I was doing internet research for a screenplay I am writing and ended up spending the night in jail with no charges.
Enough of this crud. I want out, and you can thank Mr. Bush and his cronies for my decision to leave the U.S.A. so that I can find freedom, keep my property, and have a less-stressfull life, and maybe turn a profit without having to pay welfare taxes for people who can work but don't.
Sorry for the rant. As a member of the Creative Class for many, many years, all I can say is Mr. Bush is a big fat dummy-head for what he has done to my country. C'mon America! Next Presidential election try to elect someone who has BOTH hemispheres in his brain!

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What Arrogance
Posted by: Campesino on Jun 1, 2005 5:13 PM   
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"Right, because they can't even sustain the talent that they attract, then they risk losing that talent?

What I fear is that this creative impetus can migrate globally. It's not likely to migrate back to communities in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, or Tulsa. These places are no longer are competing against San Francisco and Boston, and Austin and Seattle. They're competing with Sydney, and Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, Dublin, Amsterdam, Stockholm. We keep looking at our great creative advantages as invincible when we have rates of housing affordability and income, inequality we haven't seen since the Great Depression."

Does this guy really think that the only place you can have a "creative center" is a Boston, SF, NYC, or DC? He's right that the talent won't go to Tulsa or Cleveland but that is a straw man. The talent will go to Denver, Austin, Albuquerque, or San Antonio where the cost of living is relatively low and the quality of life is still pretty high. And that is more and more true as you can interact virtually

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Our Own Backyard
Posted by: toad on Jun 2, 2005 9:34 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While I agree on some of Mr. Florida's points; he along with many Americans are missing the point: We have a HUGE untapped labor market right here in the U.S. 20% of Minorities in this country are unemployed or underemployed. In Milwaukee Wisconsin, 59% of African American males are unemployed. Tolerance/diversity is the 2 ton elephant in the room people (government, companies,lobbyist) choose to ignore. Lets start by investing in our own people and not making opportunity a good ole` boy network.

In regards to Mr. Florida's claim that 911 is a major source of America's brain drain is ludicrous; outsourcing has been going on for years. I ask you Mr. Florida, why does America so desperately need the immigration influx? To my understanding, neither China nor India look to immigration to stimulate their thriving economies; I believe we (America) are largely responsible for their new found prosperity.

In summary, I think Mr. Florida needs to reassess where and who is the problem; he may find part of the problem by looking into the mirror.

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