Week 12: Silver Bullets—We Need Economic Development Gun Control!

Like Al Gore with global warming, we should laude Florida not for his contribution to understanding but to awareness. Pop-sci half-science couched with attractive politics, as Markusen argues, Florida’s work repackages previous theories like human capital and agglomeration.  Florida sexy-fied economic development and economically legitimizing diversity.  Yuppies and college students may choose place first and job second, but < 30% of adults have a bachelors, ~50% have some college but no degree beyond high-school, < 30% only high-school diploma—~14% don’t have that! Education ≠ intelligence, drive or creativity, but with the loss of well-paying options without training, where are the open doors? Uneducated labor is going to be the majority of the current labor force in many areas—what do we do? Ignore, marginalize, subsidize and hope that wealthier, yuppies show up to offset tax bases? Some evidence that we're at best mismatched or worst overqualified? Look at Germany (apprentice track, university track).

Florida only focuses on large metros, but ~50% of the U.S. population lives in small cities. Markusen’s endogenous consumptive growth has merit; however, grey gold is costly, and importing tourism and exporting goods are both exogenous. Most small city cited examples (Branson, Austin, Boulder, Leavenworth, Bend) are problematic outliers.