With mixed emotions I have been reading Richard Florida's book "The Flight of the Creative Class". The concept 'creative class' itself is a bit snobby and misleading (Isn't creativity needed in all professions ;-) An Example: In Las Vegas I saw many creative people in the entertainment business who are outside Florida's definition. It seems to me that Florida is discussing about knowledge workers. He expresses his concerns that knowledge workers will avoid the U.S in the future. That is hardly news to anyone of us, freedom has a different meaning in different parts of the world ;-) However, Florida's book is still worth reading because he describes quite well those challenges that every country faces in attracting talent.
My country, Finland, is mentioned in many chapters of that book. Although statistics in the book show Finland's competitiveness, I still doubt about our system's ability to attract talent: the attitude towards immigrants could be more open and our educational system is still 'optimised' for mathematics and physics education while neglecting multitalent development (like music and arts education in overall). Currently we don't have tuition fees and this is our 'catch' for many foreign students. However, this kind of situation can not last long (even I am against it as a tax payer ;-)
The mobility of workforce is another thing that makes me wonder. In the US people are used to travel thousands of kilometers to get a new job. In Europe the willingness to travel (and leave your home country) is more limited. (How can a Finn live without sauna, summer cabin and lakes ;-) Maybe 'Creative Class' is not such a compact, easily movable group?
+++ Aaron Bernstein also has a nice review where he points out certain economical facts behind Florida's book..
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