The New Geography of Jobs Kindle Edition

Mr. Moretti is an elitist technocrat who obscures the economic reality of America today. He blames the ills of globalization on a disembodied, unstoppable force of "history", not the consequence of individuals undertaking specific policies. He hardly bothers to mention discrete events or political movements that directly led to the decline of manufacturing and hollowing-out of the American middle class. His argument, as you would expect from an ivory-tower academic, is one of free market fundamentalism and fatalism - it is impossible to alter market logic, so one should simply attempt to optimize within current constraints. His solution to the decline of high-quality low-skill jobs is basically the "learn to code" meme. We should all become "innovators" and leverage our "human capital" into high-tech roles within this new "ideas economy". The problems with this Utopian perspective are immediate. Local labor distribution allocates a certain proportion of people into lower-skill, rote tasks. We can't simply educate everyone into software developers or graphic designers. University education is already prohibitively expensive for middle class workers. Globalization induces a nation-level "division of labor", where each country increasingly specializes in a single industry from comparative advantage, part of a densely connected network that transmits financial contagion almost instantly (see: 2008 financial crisis). A more diversified and self-sufficient national economy would enable America to weather international instabilities and allocate employment in proportion to the natural labor distribution. He also selectively omits discussion of decline of labor unions, wealth inequality, and oncoming automation of additional jobs beyond manufacturing. In order to build a more fair and equitable society, our policymakers would need to undertake massive investment in infrastructure and green technologies to create jobs and re-stimulate consumer demand in rural communities. If we listen to technocrats like Mr. Moretti, who prioritize the supra-national systemic order over the welfare of any particular nation, we will be content to continue the transfer of power from local political movements to a faceless force of market logic, or in his words, an inscrutable, faceless "history".Mr. Moretti is nothing but a free market ideologue, proponent for unmitigated globalization and neo-libertarian technological Utopia. He has clearly guzzled down the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid and is still thirsty for more, or at least want to vomit it up for the rest of us. He must rarely leave that little West Coast bubble of his. His writing belies utter rigidity and brittleness in thought, unable or unwilling to expand his scope to real-world complexities, never bothering to anticipate counterargument, never deviating from a smoothly ignorant perspective that collapses case-by-case subtly into a blandly empty theory stocked in corporatist jargon. The book is written in that feckless grey zone between technical exposition and high-level historical or political-philosophical analysis, little more than superficial cheer-leading, misdirection, free market platitudes disguised as simple truisms. His big solution to revitalizing the hollowed-out American middle class and rural communities is to pump more money into the private sector.Mr. Moretti is an Italian immigrant who attended an elite economics program in the U.S. and currently works at the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve. His biography should tell you all about where his ideas come from. If you are a normal person who lives an average life in the real economy, you should find his solutions (or lack thereof) as intellectually fulfilling as an Amazon or Facebook advertisement. If, on the other hand, you are a business executive who wants to feel better about how things are only getting worse for most people, you will find comfort in his reductive, supercilious, totally unoriginal thesis to reallocate even more wealth into multinational mega-corporations.

Thoughtful, smart, and important book. Interesting observations regarding job development as it relates to new industries and higher education among the workforce, which form brain hubs that define today’s economy.Only quibbles have to do with characterization of Berkeley and San Francisco. Being that I have lived in both cities for about a 15 year stretch, I know something about the history and culture of both. To begin with Berkeley is an island, one that neither follows or cares what others think. It is an impulsive and innovative community that would place economic considerations way behind a number of other socially motivated priorities—this is not to assume that it any way correctly measures such priorities at all.Now San Francisco is another case. East San Francisco is mentioned as a part of the city slated for light manufacturing in vain hopes that industry will come back. I’m sure the author is aware that that district has been “slated” for industrial business for a long, long time due to its proximity to the docks and the type of business needs that took place in that district. Gone are breweries like Hamms and bakeries like Wonder Bread. Forgotten are two million service men and women of WWII who were siphoned through the Bay Area to serve overseas and the numerous laborers who built and repaired the machinery, planes, and countless other necessities of war.San Francisco resisted the youth of Hait Ashburry, the gay and lesbian revolution, and at times the Google high tech world that has found a home in this great city. The youth culture got old, and Castro and beyond found a home after arduous struggles and final acceptance. And the Mission District has strongly resisted being bought out, and I imagine still is resisting it.In all cases we are talking about culture and traditions versus money. It then comes down to a set of values, and good ones happen over a long stretch of time.The author’s notions on creative and vibrant environments as magnets or not for development of economic hubs is naive. Employing Jimi Hendrix/Seattle as an example how creative types won’t necessarily gravitate to a metropolis based upon a creative vibe is utter nonsense. Hendrix,though born in Seattle, lived mostly in Europe and New York when he wasn’t touring. His studio Electric Lady Studio is still located in Greenwich Village. So, what does he have to do with Seattle and a creative vibe? Very curious. Should stick with what you know.

Very interesting and logical book. Everyone should read this (no...those coal jobs are not coming back, you cannot turn back time). People need to be realistic. Biggest lesson from the book........those who can adjust get by....those who cannot change with the times don't. One surprising thing in the book (at least to me) is that often "government intervention" doesn't help at all. Throwing money at cities to prop up some industries, etc. just doesn't work because sometimes you cannot predict what will be the next "big" thing, what will survive, what won't. Like so many other things, some things sound good on paper and for one reason or another just fail. Things, industries, etc. become obsolete over time and you have to be able to either retrain or adjust.

I was hoping to learn some things from this book, but found it was mostly cheerleading for globalism. When have jobs not centered around cities? Or when have new industries not grown and died in cities? The author's points about new creative industries being created to replace old ones are not convincing enough that enormous debt, trade deficits, manufacturing base erosion, etc can be replaced by high priced artisan craft culture, big data, or "innovation." The widening inequality gap wasnt convincingly addressed for me by any of his points.

A bit repetitive at times but it is a very interesting topic explored in detail and with abundance of evidence.

Good insights, I recommend it to anyone interested in public policy at the end it is quite alarming.I don’t give it a five-star rating because it is contradictory by saying at the beginning that manufacturing workers are earning more than they did before just by using GDP per capita as a measure and afterwards it mentions salaries for these workers have plummeted in the advent of globalization, economists tend to be hated just for these sort of heartless comments.

Great work from Professor Enrico Moretti.Prof Moretti gathered sound data backing the case for a future landscape of the job market. The Book does more than this and it includes hints and reasons on how and why the job market was shaped that way throughout the years. Describe the fall of several american cities and the raise of others as hub of economic progress in the nation. The firsts tied to the manufacturing sector demise the latters brought about by the new wave of tech and digital start-ups. It also suggest strategies to foster growth and strenghten weakened job markets. Great work under every persepctive: for governments as labor market guidance, for businesses which look how to foster growth and not be left behind ,ultimately for workers who are seeking to improve their careers or understanding cause of unsuccesful ones.

This book Shows original insight into the phaenomenon of creation of new jobs in growing industries. In a nutshell, there are, in any economic context, both global and local jobs. Local jobs still account for about 4 out of 5 jobs. However, global jobs are significant in determining the level of prosperity and, ultimately, the fate of local jobs. Only innovative global jobs bring prosperity to the local jobs thàt depend on them. The second concept is that innovation attracts innovation, thus, once an area has been recognized as an innovation centre for a given industry, it will go on attracting further iinovative companies.So far, so good. However, in my view, this book falls short of expectations under two aspects:- the analysis is mainly restricted to US companies in information technology and life science. Not enough attention is dedicated to innovation in non Englis-speaking countries, e.g. Germany, in machinery or, say, in renewable energies.- the possible remedies for stimulating innovation are vaguely suggested and, once again, the scope is sadly restricted to a US-centred perspective.

With "The New Geography of Books" Moretti shows how in an increasingly globalised world - counter-intuitively - a small number of cities gains greater and greater importance. The US reality has shown that businesses tend to group together in Hubs, cities which end up offering a high density of jobs and workforce. The more important education is for an industry, the higher the chances that companies and workforce will start to move towards these kind of Hubs - of which the most famous today is probably Silicon Valley.A very good read for anyone interested in the way the global economy evolves, since Moretti is pointing out one very interesting, yet essential dimension. It is probably an especially good read for people involved in local politics or local community development.