The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent 1st Edition

by Richard Florida (Author)

29 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0060756901

ISBN-10: 006075690X

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Research–driven and clearly written, bestselling economist Richard Florida addresses the growing alarm about the exodus of high–value jobs from the USA.

Today's most valued workers are what economist Richard Florida calls the Creative Class. In his bestselling The Rise of the Creative Class, Florida identified these variously skilled individuals as the source of economic revitalisation in US cities. In that book, he shows that investment in technology and a civic culture of tolerance (most often marked by the presence of a large gay community) are the key ingredients to attracting and maintaining a local creative class.

In The Flight of the Creative Class, Florida expands his research to cover the global competition to attract the Creative Class. The USA once led the world in terms of creative capital. Since 2002, factors like the Bush administration's emphasis on smokestack industries, heightened security concerns after 9/11 and the growing cultural divide between conservatives and liberals have put the US at a large disadvantage. With numerous small countries, such as Ireland, New Zealand and Finland, now tapping into the enormous economic value of this class – and doing all in their power to attract these workers and build a robust economy driven by creative capital – how much further behind will USA fall?

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following up on The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Florida argues that if America continues to make it harder for some of the world's most talented students and workers to come here, they'll go to other countries eager to tap into their creative capabilities—as will American citizens fed up with what they view as an increasingly repressive environment. He argues that the loss of even a few geniuses can have tremendous impact, adding that the "overblown" economic threat posed by large nations such as China and India obscures all the little blows inflicted upon the U.S. by Canada, Scandinavia, New Zealand and other countries with more open political climates. Florida lays his case out well and devotes a significant portion of this polemical analysis to defending his earlier book's argument regarding "technology, talent, and tolerance" (i.e. that together, they generate economic clout, so the U.S. should be more progressive on gay rights and government spending). He does so because that book contains what he sees as the way out of the dilemma—a new American society that can "tap the full creative capabilities of every human being." Even when he drills down to less panoramic vistas, however, Florida remains an astute observer of what makes economic communities tick, and he's sure to generate just as much public debate on this new twist on brain drain. 25-city radio tour.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Professor Florida makes an impassioned plea, using his first book, The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), as a jump start, for the U.S. to retain its stature as an open and welcoming home for talent. And lest readers think that the author has overstated the hype, that engineers, scientists, and other innovators are not emigrating from America, he musters up an incredible quantity of quality statistics that would disable any contrarian, from the unaffordability of our cities to our insistence on outsourcing. Yet this brain drain is not attributable simply to verifiable factors; rather, it is in large part driven by our demise as an open, tolerant society. Look at the numbers of films now produced in Toronto, New Zealand, and Australia. Who now has the lead in developing new ideas in consumer electronics? Note the decreasing numbers of Nobel Prizes awarded to U.S. citizens. How do we solve the problem? He admits his four-pronged program is not an overnight panacea; it requires a profound societal shift. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (April 12, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006075690X
ISBN-13: 978-0060756901
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 29 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,603,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #425 in Books > Business & Money > Human Resources > Knowledge Capital
- #2690 in Books > Business & Money > International > Economics
- #8782 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > General

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REd Sucker

Richard's assumptions........again

August 2, 2011

Verified Purchase

On pp 9-10, Richard casually mentions government regulation as one of the reasons for USA's 11th place and dropping ranking for creative business environs,citing Sweden Canada Australia, Ireland as ahead of us.....he consistently glosses over the fact that the creative class as he created it is assumed to be enlightened coastal liberals, who are notorious for creating these regulations on the very creative businesses he champions, and, or course, on every other non-creative buinsess who suffer alike.....which of course stifles all creativity ...like agriculture which he avoids because everybody knows farmers are neither creative nor liberal, nor coastal (Richard's assumptions) ......and the aforementioned countries, after decades of their own self stifling liberalism, are in liberal-political -recovery......the US is just now falling into that abyss....recovery possibly just starting. Richard assumes again that personal attributes such as of tolerance are owend by the creative class on the coasts, and several other smug-ceative class personal attributes.....perhaps the most galling of human atributes, "patronizing smugness" permeates.

IN other words....the creative class and Richard should stay out of politics...they are damn poor visionaries for human governance.....too much imangination too little reality.....create a digi-phone, go to creative little coffeeshop, order creative brew, complain about ruling party, .....and go home to creative little meal, music, movie, be smug, be creative, leave the rest alone!

Otherwise, good observations on the movements of cutting edge industry on the planet and the USA's position in same.

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Chicago Joe

Five Stars

May 20, 2015

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Thank You.

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Gerald S. Pallor

Finally, an economist who makes sense and has an ...

May 29, 2015

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Finally, an economist who makes sense and has an approach that relates to the world I experience. A must read for anyone at all involved in economic development.

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Hiram Chance

Still needs to take on the 900-pound gorilla

April 10, 2007

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"If America continues to make it harder for some of the world's most talented students and workers to come here, they'll go to other countries eager to tap into their creative capabilities--as will American citizens fed up with what they view as an increasingly repressive environment."

-- Dr. Richard Florida, The Flight of the Creative Class

From this quote you can see immediately the sort of society Dr. Florida wants. Me, too. What's puzzling is he doesn't explicitly attach his shiny new cart of creativity to the thoroughbred of peace and political liberty.

In particular, you'd expect him to lambaste the Neocon Usurpers for launching expensive wars for isolated benefit of the Carlyle Group. Is he pulling his punches so Rush Bimbaugh won't accuse him of Bush-bashing? In general, why doesn't Florida boldly oppose the bonecrushing machinery of government per se?

That's my 900-pound-gorilla reservation about The Creative books. Otherwise, they provide a nice boost to the kinds of people we want to cultivate in society... or even want to be.

It appears many in public office, more semi-comatose Democrats than fully rabid Republicans, are interested in developing and retaining creative communities.

But are they willing to do what it takes?

The more political power they wield the less willing they are.

Rise shows that what Dr. Florida calls the three Ts of creative-class communities--Talent, Technology, and Tolerance--occur rarely. And when they do, it's more from the tolerance angle.

Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Burlington (VT), Boston, the highest American cities on the creative-class list, achieve their vaunted status by spontaneous order. When governments catch up to what's going on and want to push people around, it's too late.

Tolerance is also another word for freedom. We can easily argue that liberty is fundamentally what the creative havenots have not. Talent and technology gravitate toward communities naturally when political leaders see their mission as preserving a natural order based on civil liberties.

They accomplish that mission mainly by removing government obstacles and keeping the infrastructure efficient.

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. -- Thoreau

Libertarians need no writer from the halls of the Carnegie Mellon Institute to tell us this dear Hamlet. But it's nice that in Rise Dr. Florida makes such a good statistical case for what creativity is, where it lives, and how we can nurture it. He also makes us aware that we, too, are paid-up members of the CC.

Flight is about politicians not getting the point of Rise.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie

reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright

Copyright 2007

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