The creative class (Portland: appointed, 2013, Home Depot)

[ozarksboy]

I'm trying to understand Texas life. I'm married to a Texan, who would like for me to retire there. I live in the Ozarks of Missouri, though, and we have four distinct seasons (and I mean distinct, hotter than the hinges of hell in the summer and colder than a witch's breast in winter) plus lots of good hunting and fishing here. Lots of city folk move here for retirement, and then ***** about us. I don't want to be like that if I retire to Texas, so I am doing research. Today, my research is on the "creative class."

I've seen that term, "the creative class," in a couple of posts, and it makes me curious. What do they create? Is it a collective term for artists, musicians, writers? Or is it engineers and architects? Is it the men and women who operate the heavy equipment used to create roads and bridges and big buildings?

Is the creative class a growing segment in Texas life? What percentage of Texans are in the creative class? Is the rest of the state the non-creative or uncreative class?

I work for a big-box store, so what class are the people who work at places at Lowe's or Home Depot? Are there more members of the creative class than people who work in stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Walmart, etc.?

[RMFW]

Look up Richard Florida and that should fill in a lot of what is meant by the Creative Class.

[radiolibre99]

Creative class is a baseless term created by a professor and peddled as a theory by a yuppie rag called Atlantic Monthly. It applies mostly to upwardly mobile young people in the creative fields like art, tech/computers, architecture, engineering design, and hard sciences. It's basically a nicer way of saying 'yuppies'.

The yuppies of yesteryear were traditional but these days they're annoying mix of yuppie and hipster. Think of nearly every Apple or Prius ad you've ever seen. Think of every annoying faux indie romantic dramedy out in the mainstream. The characters in those films are yipsters. They gentrify the hell out of hoods that hipsters find first.

But read the stuff in the Atlantic Monthly written by Florida mentioned above. You will keel over laughing from the utter narcissism and self aggrandizing.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

I'm trying to understand Texas life. I'm married to a Texan, who would like for me to retire there. I live in the Ozarks of Missouri, though, and we have four distinct seasons (and I mean distinct, hotter than the hinges of hell in the summer and colder than a witch's breast in winter) plus lots of good hunting and fishing here. Lots of city folk move here for retirement, and then ***** about us. I don't want to be like that if I retire to Texas, so I am doing research. Today, my research is on the "creative class."

I've seen that term, "the creative class," in a couple of posts, and it makes me curious. What do they create? Is it a collective term for artists, musicians, writers? Or is it engineers and architects? Is it the men and women who operate the heavy equipment used to create roads and bridges and big buildings?

Is the creative class a growing segment in Texas life? What percentage of Texans are in the creative class? Is the rest of the state the non-creative or uncreative class?

I work for a big-box store, so what class are the people who work at places at Lowe's or Home Depot? Are there more members of the creative class than people who work in stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Walmart, etc.?

I took sociology and Im rusty on this but I think retail service workers would be like working class or working poor.I don't know the income thresholds for working class people.There is diversity on incomes of different working class people.Id say there are more people working for big-box stores and the service industry than the "creative class".

[H'ton]

Originally Posted by RMFW

Look up Richard Florida and that should fill in a lot of what is meant by the Creative Class.

Exactly...I was going to suggest that you read this book:
The Rise of the Creative Class--Revisited: Revised and Expanded by Richard Florida | 9780465042487 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble

[hoffdano]

The creative class is simply put - a bunch of socio-academic garbage. It was used to justify urban planning intended to attact the kind of people that cities like Portland and Seattle are known for.

For some reason they though that having artists, writers, poets, musicians, etc. in abundance in a city makes life better. It might make some part of life more interesting, but these people don't pay much in taxes, they are associated with narcissistic behavior, and do nothing to actually improve schools, traffic, air quality, or reduce crime.

The man widely associated with it admits now that attracting the creative class to an area doesn't help anything.

Richard Florida Concedes the Limits of the Creative Class - The Daily Beast

[ozarksboy]

Thank you all for your information. Now I understand. And I'm kind of disappointed.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Thank you all for your information. Now I understand. And I'm kind of disappointed.

Netime but Im sorry your disappointed.

[RMFW]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Thank you all for your information. Now I understand. And I'm kind of disappointed.

It's a topic that carries a lot of baggage and a fair amount of controversy, but I wouldn't walk away with the picture you are getting here alone (which in certain instances I'd characterize as a bit overly harsh). But read up on it, especially from original sources and you'll learn that is an interesting topic the more you read both sides of the debate.

[Eastcoasting]

another way of viewing the creative class...

"kids these days!"