Something like how video purportedly killed the radio star, the Internet and the economic crisis is murdering the creative class today, according to a provocative essay in Salon by Scott Timberg. “This creative class was supposed to be the new engine of the United States economy, post-industrial age, and as the educated, laptop-wielding cohort grew, the U.S. was going to grow with it,” he writes. “But for those who deal with ideas, culture and creativity at street level -- the working- or middle-classes within the creative class -- things are less cheery. Book editors, journalists, video store clerks, musicians, novelists without tenure -- they're among the many groups struggling through the dreary combination of economic slump and Internet reset. The creative class is melting, and the story is largely untold,” he adds. “The Creative Class Is Evaporating” is the way our sister site, The Atlantic Wire, summed it up.
Kudos to Timberg and Salon for focusing attention on the plight of struggling artists, musicians, and writers during this devastating economic crisis. I welcome Salon’s coverage of this critical issue and very much look forward to reading the rest of the series. But in focusing on such disparate events as the closing of chains like Borders and Tower Records, the decline of independent record stores and book shops, and the mass layoffs at print newspapers, he misses the forest for the proverbial trees.
To read the full, original article click on this link: The Creative Class Is Alive - Jobs & Economy - The Atlantic Cities
Author:Richard Florida
