Stimulate creativity, not infrastructure: Richard Florida

Creative class champion Richard Florida had a column in the Globe and Mail yesterday in which he discusses Obama’s bailout plan. Florida says it’s time to forget about infrastructure when putting together bailout packages because the new economy will be based on something else: creativity. Scientists, engineers and artists are the new driving force of our economy and are worth investing in more than highways.

The creative economy already includes roughly 30 per cent of Canada’s work force and about a third in the U.S. It accounts for more than half of all wages and salaries paid in each country. So, if the stimulus were allocated proportionately, between $250-billion and $375-billion should have gone to the U.S. creative economy; in Canada, the figure would be $12-billion to $20-billion.

Florida makes a parallel with the New Deal, which at the time focused on infrastructure and assembly line products instead of the aging agricultural system. It’s time for us to make the transition to the new economy.