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

Average customer rating:

Still needs to take on the 900-pound gorilla

Don't Waste Your Time and Money

False Dichotomy between Creative and Technology Mindset

Florida's work is based on a fundamentally flawed assumption

Politically independent?

The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent
Richard Florida
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life

Cities and the Creative Class

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas

The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators

ASIN: 0060756918
Release Date: 2007-02-20

Book Description

The most valued workers today are what the economist Richard Florida calls the Creative Class, skilled individuals ranging from money managers to make–up artists, software programmers to steady–cam operators who are in constant demand around the world. Florida's bestselling The Rise of the Creative Class identified these workers as the source of economic revitalization in American 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 United States was, up until 2002, the unparalleled leader in creative capital. But several key events––the Bush administrations 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 substantial dis–advantage.

Customer Reviews:

Still needs to take on the 900-pound gorilla.......2007-04-11

"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

Don't Waste Your Time and Money.......2006-06-21

While I appreciated and generally agreed with the thesis Richard Florida puts forward that creativity is important for society, there were many times when I found his writing `style' to be annoying. I had almost put the book down after completing the first third of it. Mr. Florida's sensitivity to criticism and unabashed need to respond to every negative comment he received from his first book made me wonder just how narcissistic this man was. His ego flows onto each page and sometimes, in my view, gets in the way of his work and feeds a perception that he is not completely objective.

There are many points that get overlooked in his analysis. Why are people gravitating to Austin, Texas? Mr. Florida postulates it is because the city is open to new ideas and diverse. While I am certain that there are people who choose to relocate based on perceptions of how open and diverse a given area is, it makes more sense to look at more practical motivators such as taxes, real estate prices, crime rates, or climate. Tangible factors such as these get little mention. The assumption made by Mr. Florida is that a heterogeneous, open society is more creative than a homogenous, closed one. I guess that Japan and South Korea don't count.

I could go on, but I would not recommend this book.

False Dichotomy between Creative and Technology Mindset.......2006-05-11

Richard Florida's work has many culturally helpful things to say. A kid's review - well argued by the way - has pointed out that Florida's work has a right brain bias. I agree, and I don't mind.

The US leads in entertainment and cultural innovation. Its writers, artists, musicians have inspired the rest of the world for a century. Today though, we fall behind in math as India and China educate engineers by the thousands. Both kinds of professionals are needed to create DIGITAL content. Communications technology without a stimulating variety of cultural content would be vapid, robotic and regimented. Humane, funny, vulnerable, caring, prankish creatives make the technology math heads produce worth watching, listening to, interacting with.

Florida's cultural creatives are the people who do this. Without them, you get the aesthetics of the the first experiments in 3D animation in the early 80's. No art direction and horrible colors. Digital technology has to present something pleasing to the eye,the ear, the soul. And the sensibility that creates this is a different kind of sensibility from algorithmic math and logic. When married, you get Apple. When kept separate you get Sun microsystems.

But wait tech heads. Great content still needs fabulous technology to get encoded into bits, sent 20,000 miles and decoded. Records don't get made without audio engineers.

Can we get over this petty squabbling and admit that techies and artists need each other? Do we all have to be little DaVinci's to close the gap? If Florida complains about President Bush subtly or not so subtly in this book, it's because Bush doesn't get half of the equation. Have you ever heard Bush say anything about the arts in his two terms as president? Short sighted, I think, and worth a complaint or two.

Florida's work is based on a fundamentally flawed assumption.......2006-04-28

Richard Florida divides people into two groups, those in the creative class such as artists, musicians, and engineers and those not in the creative class, mainly people not engaged in so called "creative work". Based on his research into the characteristics of these groups he concludes that India and China are not the real threat in terms of high tech competition and it is the smaller European nations with more open political climates that are the real threat. Obviously, Florida is not an engineer or a real scientist since anyone in the high tech field knows that India and China are the main competition for high tech jobs and the massive offshoring of engineering jobs is even lowering the number of students in college pursuing these fields. The main problem is that Florida doesn't realize that an engineer with a 4 year university degree is not the same as a writer, musician or artist that may have no education at all especially in difficult math and science courses. He mistakenly believes these two separate groups to be equal and the same in terms of contributing to high tech innovation and development. For writers an open political climate is necessary to make a living writing controversial books. However, for an engineer an open political climate is not essential in most cases but a stable modern environment where he feels confortable living and working is needed. Furthermore, Florida makes a huge deal about the "Gay Index" where high concentration of gays indicate a high concentration of the creative class and high tech innovation. This may be true in western civilization but in China and India it is irrelavant. Florida also seems to have given up on his "Technology" element of economic development for America because in his latest article for USA Today he states something to the effect that high tech innovation can be outsourced anywhere and America can only maintain its lead if it concentrated on "culture", "art", "music" and "improving retail service" jobs. In conclusion, Richard Florida's creative class theory where "Talent", "Technology", and "Tolerance" is needed for economic development is fundamentally flawed. Florida's writings lack the rigor and unbiased analysis of a real engineer or scientist but is designed to sell books to a socially liberal audience.

Politically independent?.......2006-02-08

I bought this book after seeing Mr Florida talk on CSPAN-2. He does have some interesting things to say about creativity, but...

I found it very difficult to finish.

Mr Florida claims to be politically independent, but he doesn't even hesitate to engage in the sort of casual Bush bashing one see's only in the extreme left, and along with this he repeats almost every silly platitude of same, including the ridiculous "pentagon holding a bake sale to buy a bomber" bit.

If he's politically independent, then I'm the King of Siam.

And his solution? right out of the leftists playbook, we have to spend more, lots more, way more than we ever have, "several orders of magnitude more" on "education", "culture" and "the arts."

Anyone interested in buying a used book? Only read once...

Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education

Average customer rating:

Great resource
The principal book about Human Capital Theory.

Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education
Gary S. Becker
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0226041204

Book Description

Human Capital is Becker's classic study of how investment in an individual's education and training is similar to business investments in equipment. Recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, Gary S. Becker is a pioneer of applying economic analysis to human behavior in such areas as discrimination, marriage, family relations, and education. Becker's research on human capital was considered by the Nobel committee to be his most noteworthy contribution to economics.

This expanded edition includes four new chapters, covering recent ideas about human capital, fertility and economic growth, the division of labor, economic considerations within the family, and inequality in earnings.

"Critics have charged that Mr. Becker's style of thinking reduces humans to economic entities. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Becker gives people credit for having the power to reason and seek out their own best destiny."—Wall Street Journal

Customer Reviews:

Great resource.......2007-01-10

This book is very technical in nature and not "a light read." However, it is an essential resource for anyone interested in labor economics and human capital. Dr. Becker is brilliant. Highly recommend!

The principal book about Human Capital Theory........2001-03-23

Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science, Becker has pioneered the aplication of economic analysis to human behavior in such areas as dicrimination, married, family, etc. This book is a classic study of the consequences of investing in a person's knowledge and skills. According to his theory, investing in an individual's education and training is similar to business investments in equipment.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2003-01-18

Although I do disagree with the direction that contributors' conclusion, this is an interesting and important little text and well worth a read.

Very pro-shareholder analysis of a potential better future.......2001-10-19

I wonder if the reviewer from Illinois read the same book I did. If so, I think that he must have read it exclusively to knock it down. He takes things completely out of context. I found this book to be very interesting, and very pro-shareholder power. It raises significant questions on who makes the money decisions and how they make them, and offers some intriguing possibilities for the future.

Sometimes it seems like companies have become focused on "shareholder value" as if shareholders weren't human beings with many interests. For example, "shareholders" want airlines to keep prices down, to pay security checkpoint staff the bare minimum ... unless, of course, the shareholder is also flying on the airplane, in which case, they might feel that security is a more important value than thrift.

Some of these articles are a tad dry and academic, but the points they raise are really important. If you're a pension fund trustee, or a pension recipient, I urge you to read this book.

Politicizing Investment Decisions.......2001-09-21

The premise of this book is that pensions are being mismanaged by companies and investment managers to worker's detriment. The facts are misrepresented and the solutions offered are chilling. Here are some examples:

The writers believe that a companyýs management should not make pension investment decisions, even thought by law, most plans are required to be maintained for the exclusive benefit of participants. (Notable exceptions to this rule are public plans and union-sponsored plans!)

Several chapters also state that workers themselves are not capable enough to manage their own pensions ý they should not be allowed to make decisions as to current vs. future spending and make ýmistakesý in asset allocation.

The alarming conclusion is that only 1) union leadership or 2) the government is equipped to make decisions on the $7 trillion invested in pensions.

Pensions investment decisions have not been speculative and are not short-term in nature. The Asian crisis in 1997 and tech decline 2000-present are often cited in the book as examples of mismanagement. However, almost all pension plans were under-weighted (relative to the total market) and extremely few were over-weighted in these sectors at the time of their drop. In other words, plan fiduciaries recognized some of the speculation involved in the inflated prices, and adjusted portfolios accordingly. Had this book been written in 1975, they would decry the ýNifty Fiftyý market decline.

Instead of using professional investment managers that seek (and are incented for) the highest possible return given a risk profile, the authors would like to use other factors in making investment decisions. For example, will any investment decisions result in layoffs, plant closings or job flight overseas?

In other words, we must keep all our existing industries and refuse to re-train workers for the better jobs of tomorrow. This approach didnýt work too well for the Soviet Union.

Yes, it is painful when worker lose their jobs, but the growth of the US economy in the last 20 years has been due, in part, to the fact that we have exited low-skills industries, and we adapt to changes faster than any other country.

The exciting fact is that over 50% of households now own stock, and the majority of us are now owners, as well as workers. We have an opportunity to manage companies better. I agree with the foreword that CEO compensation is too high, and vote my proxies on that basis.

This book is very anti-individual and anti-shareholder.

Do Pension Funds Benefit Workers?.......2001-05-29

Imagine your own money being used to throw you out of a job and deny you a decent living. Millions of workers don't have to imagine this, it is a reality, as the pension funds they have bargained for in union contracts can be used to buy up their firms and throw them out of jobs.

Most people, including workers with defined benefit pension plans, don't realize how little control workers have over their pension money. This is an important issue, since pension funds currently have more than $4 trillion in assets. Pension funds are powerful actors in current financial markets.

However, the control of pension fund assets rests, not with the workers, but rather with the same sort of financial managers who run other types of funds. These financial managers often use pension fund assets to finance the type of speculative short-term investments that they make with other funds. The impact that this behavior might have on the jobs of workers for whom they are investing is not a concern for pension fund managers.

As the papers in this book make clear, this lack of concern is partially for legal reasons - the law requires that pension fund managers act in the interest of the pension plans participants and beneficiaries. But part of the failure of pension fund managers to consider the impact of investments on workers is due to fears and prejudices that go beyond the legal requirements implied by this responsibility.

For example, many funds engage in extremely risky investments at present. Investing in East Asia earlier in the nineties was extremely risky, although many pension fund managers did not become aware of this fact until after the East Asian financial crisis. Similarly, buying stock on the NASDAQ in the late nineties was also quite risky. In spite of the risks involved, hundreds of billions of dollars in pension fund money flowed into East Asia in the early and mid-nineties, and into the NASDAQ in the late nineties.

As this money flowed out of the country or into the tech economy, thousands of smaller and medium sized manufacturing businesses were being starved of capital. The pension funds offered these firms no help. Even though many of these businesses employ unionized workers at decent wage rates, the managers of pension funds had no inclination to use the resources under their control to try to save workers jobs.

Pension funds have also done little to prevent the top executives of major corporations from raiding the companies they manage to pay themselves salaries far out of line with what executives receive elsewhere in the world. The representatives of shareholders, including pension fund managers, have looked the other way as top corporate executives decided to bless themselves with salaries running into the tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars annually. These salaries bear no obvious relationship to performance by any measure. As one of the articles in this book notes, exorbitant executive salaries can be viewed as a tax out of workers' paychecks - the impact is the same, less money for wages.

Alternatively, these salaries can be seen as taking money which rightfully belongs to the shareholders. But, for some reason, the $50 million salaries of CEOs never seem to raise as much ire among investors as the concern that autoworkers or steel workers may be overpaid by $1-$2 and hour.

Book Description

With this book, Nancy Isenberg illuminates the origins of the women's rights movement. Rather than herald the singular achievements of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, she examines the confluence of events and ideas—before and after 1848—that, in her view, marked the real birth of feminism. Drawing on a wide range of sources, she demonstrates that women's rights activists of the antebellum era crafted a coherent feminist critique of church, state, and family. In addition, Isenberg shows, they developed a rich theoretical tradition that influenced not only subsequent strains of feminist thought but also ideas about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally.

By focusing on rights discourse and political theory, Isenberg moves beyond a narrow focus on suffrage. Democracy was in the process of being redefined in antebellum America by controversies over such volatile topics as fugitive slave laws, temperance, Sabbath laws, capital punishment, prostitution, the Mexican War, married women's property rights, and labor reform—all of which raised significant legal and constitutional questions. These pressing concerns, debated in women's rights conventions and the popular press, were inseparable from the gendered meaning of nineteenth-century citizenship.

Customer Reviews:

Preaching to the choir.......2003-10-20

If you are not already well-steeped in the vocabulary and concepts of feminist theory and American history, don't bother picking up this book -- you won't understand a word of it.

Antebellum Women's Rights.......2001-10-17

Isenberg studies women's political and social activism in antebellum America. In her study she demonstrates how through various mediums such as public speaking, conventions, publications and fashion women expressed a unique feminist perspective. Feminists of antebellum America more importantly, attempt and perhaps succeed to an extent to define their own gender roles and defy those ascribed them by men. With a keen understanding of rights and representation feminists challenge the normative assumptions of citizenship.

One of the finest examples of political history.......1999-08-24

Nancy Isenberg has written one of the finest examples of political history to emerge from the field of women's history. Her work underscores the importance of the women's rights movement and situates that movement within the political culture of the antebellum period. The book is a little weak on narrative but its sophistication and ability to contextualize the women's rights movement within the broader political culture of the period makes this book a worthwhile read for all historians interested in pre-civil war America.

Another Civil War: Labor, Capital, and the State in the Anthracite Regions of Pennsylvania, 18401868 (North's Civil War)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Scholarship

Another Civil War: Labor, Capital, and the State in the Anthracite Regions of Pennsylvania, 18401868 (North's Civil War)
Grace Palladino
Manufacturer: Fordham University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0823225917
Release Date: 2006-04-01

Book Description

Winner of the Avery O. Craven Prize of the Organization of American HistoriansAnother Civil War explores a tumultuous era of social change in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania. Because the Union Army depended on anthracite to fuel steam-powered factories, locomotives, and battle ships, coal miners in Schuylkill, Luzerne, and Carbon Counties played a vital role in the Northern war effort. However, that role was complicated by a history of ethnic, political, and class conflicts: after years of struggle in an unsafe and unstable industry, miners expected to use their wartime economic power to win victories for themselves and their families. Yet they were denounced as traitors and draft resisters, and their strikes were broken by Federal troops. Focusing on the social and economic impact of the Civil War on a group of workers central to that war, this dramatic narrative raises important questions about industrialization and work-place conflicts in the mid-1860s, about the rise of a powerful, centralized government, and about the ties between government and industry that shaped class relations. It traces the deep, local roots of wartime strikes in the coal regions and demonstrates important links between national politics, military power, and labor organization in the years before, during, and immediately after the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Scholarship.......2007-02-18

This study of the coal miners labor struggle in the Anthracite regions, primarily in Schuykill County, PA is well researched and most importantly well written. It also elucidates on the discrimination of the Irish during this period of "Nativism" and the "No Nothings" in the US. Extremely well documented, it will be an excellent resource for additional study of this critical period in labor history and it's impact on the Civil War.

The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America (Landmark Law Cases & American Society)

Average customer rating:

Fantastic book

The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America (Landmark Law Cases & American Society)
David Ray Papke
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Labor Unions | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Labor & Employment | Business | Law | Subjects | Books

Legal History | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Employment | English Law | Law | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0700609547

Book Description

When the American Railway Union went on strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894, it set into motion a chain of events whose repercussions are still felt today. The strike pitted America's largest industrial union against twenty-four railroads, paralyzed rail traffic in half the country, and in the end was broken up by federal troops and suppressed by the courts, with union leader Eugene Debs incarcerated. But behind the Pullman case lay a conflict of ideologies at a watershed time in our nation's history.

David Ray Papke reexamines the events and personalities surrounding the 1894 strike, related proceedings in the Chicago trial courts, and the 1895 Supreme Court decision, In re Debs, which set important standards for labor injunctions. He shows how the Court, by upholding Debs's contempt citation, dealt fatal blows to broad-based unionism in the nation's most important industry and to any hope for a more evenhanded form of judicial involvement in labor disputes--thus setting the stage for labor law in decades to come.

The Pullman case was a defining moment in the often violent confrontation between capital and labor. It matched wealthy industrialist George Pullman against Debs and gave a stage to Debs's fledgling attorney Clarence Darrow. Throughout the trial, capital and labor tried to convince the public of the justice of their cause: Debs decrying the company's treatment of workers and Pullman raising fears of radical unionists. Papke provides an analytically concise and highly readable account of these proceedings, offering insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the law at the peak of industrial capitalism, showcasing Debs's passionate commitment to workers' rights, and providing a window on America during a period of rapid industrialization and social transformation.

Papke shows that the law was far from neutral in defending corporate interests and suggests what the Pullman case, by raising questions about both the legitimacy of giant corporations and the revolutionary style of industrial unions, can teach us about law and legal institutions in our own time. His book captures the passions of industrial America and tells an important story at the intersection of legal and cultural history.

This book is part of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book.......2004-09-07

The Pullman Case is a very well written account of the American Railway Union strike. Despite the seemingly dry material, the author manages to be concise and makes otherwise bland events quite entertaining. I highly recommend this book for gaining an appreciation of the historical underpinnings of the battle between labor and capital in America.

Transcending the Economy: On the Potential of Passionate Labor and the Wastes of the Market

Average customer rating:

Transcending the Economy: On the Potential of Passionate Labor and the Wastes of the Market
Michael Perelman
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Policy & Current Events | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Class Warfare in the Information Age

ASIN: 0312229771

Book Description

Transcending the Economy explores the reasons why our economy fails to provide a more fulfilling way of life. Michael Perelman argues that the irrational dominance of markets imposes burdens of needless waste and lost potential, and furthermore, traditional economics is ill-equipped to approach such matters because of its focus on limits rather than potential. As an alternative, Perelman develops Charles Fourier’s concept of passionate labor. Using examples ranging from wartime selflessness to blood donations and computer programming, he demonstrates that passionate labor has the potential to elevate both human performance and satisfaction well beyond the shallow limits imposed by markets.

Human Capital in the United States from 1975 to 2000: Patterns of Growth and Utilization

Average customer rating:

Human Capital in the United States from 1975 to 2000: Patterns of Growth and Utilization
Robert H. Haveman , Andrew Bershadker , and Jonathan A. Schwabish
Manufacturer: W. E. Upjohn Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This study enhances the existing measures of the nation's human capital and the extent to which that capital is utilized. Haveman, Bershadker, and Schwabish develop an indicator of the value of the human capital stock held by the nation's working-age population called Earnings Capacity (EC), and use it to study the time trends in aggregate human capital in the United States and human capital per worker. They also use EC to evaluate utilization of the nation's human capital stock, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of the EC indicator in measuring the size and strength of the U.S. economy.

The authors then explore these patterns for the entire working-age population as well as for at-risk subgroups distinguished by race, schooling, and age in order to highlight the social and public policy relevance of the EC indicator.

Book Description

Universality is a dangerous concept, according to Grace Kyungwon Hong, one that has contributed to the rise of the U.S. nation-state that privileges the propertied individual. However, African American, Asian American, and Chicano people experience the same stretch of city sidewalk with varying degrees of safety, visibility, and surveillance. The Ruptures of American Capital examines two key social formations—women of color feminism and racialized immigrant women’s culture—in order to argue that race and gender are contradictions within the history of U.S. capital that should be understood not as monolithic but as marked by its crises. Hong shows how women of color feminism identified ways in which nationalist forms of capital, such as the right to own property, were repressive. The Ruptures of American Capital demonstrates that racialized immigrant women’s culture has brought to light contested modes of incorporation into consumer culture. Interweaving discussion of U.S. political economy with literary analyses (including readings from Booker T. Washington to Jessica Hagedorn) Hong challenges the individualism of the United States and the fetishization of difference that is one of the markers of globalization. Grace Kyungwon Hong is assistant professor of English and Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books