Allying the Creative Class
Well, there you have it. Apple has officially recognized the “creative class” in an advertisement. I say that with some satisfaction since it’s a point I’ve been talking about for some time (despite the rejection from MacSlash concerning the topic as a post).
The timing for the corporate recognition of this concept could not come sooner. As Richard Florida, the man who first coined the phrase, points out in his article Creative Class War, the health of our creative economy may very well be on its last leg.
How did this happen? Who’s to blame? How can it be fixed? The author pulls very few punches.
…I’m convinced that the biggest reason has to do with the changed political and policy landscape in Washington. In the 1990s, the federal government focused on expanding America’s human capital and interconnectedness to the world–crafting international trade agreements, investing in cutting edge R&D, subsidizing higher education and public access to the Internet, and encouraging immigration. But in the last three years, the government’s attention and resources have shifted to older sectors of the economy, with tariff protection and subsidies to extractive industries. Meanwhile, Washington has stunned scientists across the world with its disregard for consensus scientific views when those views conflict with the interests of favored sectors (as has been the case with the issue of global climate change). Most of all, in the wake of 9/11, Washington has inspired the fury of the world, especially of its educated classes, with its my-way-or-the-highway foreign policy. In effect, for the first time in our history, we’re saying to highly mobile and very finicky global talent, “You don’t belong here.”
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