Richard Florida On The Real Economic Threat

Richard Florida summarizes his writings of the creative class in this very intriguing editorial column."Though outsourcing is understandably distressing to many, history teaches us that it is manageable, if we are able to create a new tier of jobs derived from cutting-edge technologies, ideas and industries. What should really alarm us is that our capacity to create these new technologies and industries is being eroded by a different kind of competition: the competition for highly-skilled, highly-educated global talent.

China, India and other countries will of course continue to grow rapidly and take away many low-paying -- and even some high-paying -- American jobs. But, increasingly, it is Canada, Australia, and the Scandinavian and Northern European nations that are stealing our real thunder...

Just as the United States' obsession with the Soviet Union in the final years of the Cold War caused us to miss the emerging economic challenge posed by Japan, our eyes are not currently on the biggest threat to American economic might."