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So maybe Boston is more important than Houston, but not for long. Houston will continue to see high growth, although at a slower rate than peak times, and will only continue to grow in importance.
And your finding are nice and all, but no matter how many "studies" you find, you must be hard-pressed to honestly believe that Boston is better than SF, DC, or Chicago.
Another thing, you look down on the importance of Houston's strenghts because how they are tied together. OIL=PORTS, etc. But did it ever occur to you that Boston wouldn't be a leader in life sciences if it werent for its mutliple universities, same with Bio-technology. Looks like its in a similar situation like Houston. And although more stable than oil, and its not just oil its energy in general, it wouldnt be hard to imagine that if one part of Boston's economy falters, another one will as well.
And economically Houston is very productive, despite having over 1.5 million less people in the CSA it's GAP is right behind Boston. Just thought you'd like to know that. Now Houston's current population with 1.5 million more, we'd have a clear lead over Boston.
So maybe Boston is more important than Houston, but not for long. Houston will continue to see high growth, although at a slower rate than peak times, and will only continue to grow in importance.
How do you figure? GDP is only a part of a city's importance. There are many things that don't contribute to the GDP of a city, but are extremely important.
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And your finding are nice and all, but no matter how many "studies" you find, you must be hard-pressed to honestly believe that Boston is better than SF, DC, or Chicago.
Did you mean to say "you'd be hard-pressed to honestly believe that Boston is more important than SF, DC or Chicago"? Because I don't see any reason why it would be some colossal injustice to say Boston's better than those cities, since it's totally subjective. I don't think Boston's more important than those cities...and lmckin said in a later post that he didn't necessarily think so either. He was just posting a list made by a third party.
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Another thing, you look down on the importance of Houston's strenghts because how they are tied together. OIL=PORTS, etc. But did it ever occur to you that Boston wouldn't be a leader in life sciences if it werent for its mutliple universities, same with Bio-technology. Looks like its in a similar situation like Houston.
I agree with you 100% up until...
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And although more stable than oil, and its not just oil its energy in general, it wouldnt be hard to imagine that if one part of Boston's economy falters, another one will as well.
I'm not sure what you mean by this? If the market is down people aren't going to stop going to college. Boston's is a world power in management consulting. I would think that if other areas of the economy faltered, demand for consulting would rise for obvious reasons.
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And economically Houston is very productive, despite having over 1.5 million less people in the CSA it's GAP is right behind Boston. Just thought you'd like to know that. Now Houston's current population with 1.5 million more, we'd have a clear lead over Boston.
Like I said before, there are so many things that happen in Boston that aren't quantified. Boston is an international finance hub...the mutual fund was invented in Massachusetts. As a result, Boston is littered with some of the top mutual fund companies in the world (State Street, MFS, Putnam, Fidelity). As of 2008, there was over $26 trillion in mutual funds. Boston's the #3 private equity city in the world behind New York City & London. That won't show up in our GDP. Producing world leaders and future captains of industry won't necessarily show up in the GDP. The medical research performed in both Boston & Houston don't necessarily show up in our GDPs either.
You should definitely consider things like that. By MSA you've already surpassed us in GDP, yet we continue to be considered the more powerful city by the rankings posted previously in this thread...
How do you figure? GDP is only a part of a city's importance. There are many things that don't contribute to the GDP of a city, but are extremely important.
Did you mean to say "you'd be hard-pressed to honestly believe that Boston is more important than SF, DC or Chicago? Because I don't see any reason why it would be some colossal injustice to say Boston's better than those cities, since it's totally subjective. I don't think Boston's more important than those cities...and lmckin said in a later post that he didn't necessarily think so either. He was just posting a list made by a third party.
I agree with you 100% up until...
I'm not sure what you mean by this? If the market is down people aren't going to stop going to college. Boston's is a world power in management consulting. I would think that if other areas of the economy faltered, demand for consulting would rise for obvious reasons.
Like I said before, there are so many things that happen in Boston that aren't quantified. Boston is an international finance hub...the mutual fund was invented in Massachusetts. As a result, Boston is littered with some of the top mutual fund companies in the world (State Street, MFS, Putnam, Fidelity). As of 2008, there was over $26 trillion in mutual funds. Boston's the #3 private equity city in the world behind New York City & London. That won't show up in our GDP. Producing world leaders and future captains of industry won't necessarily show up in the GDP. The medical research performed in both Boston & Houston don't necessarily show up in our GDPs either.
You should definitely consider things like that. By MSA you've already surpassed us in GDP, yet we continue to be considered the more powerful city by the rankings posted previously in this thread...
These are all very good points, but you've neglected to mention God's favor which pretty much triples if not centuples the GDP of any MSA.
How do you figure? GDP is only a part of a city's importance. There are many things that don't contribute to the GDP of a city, but are extremely important.
I already wrote my response, and then the page refreshed so I'll be direct. As Houston grows, it will densify, become more livable, get bigger, and become more important due to its size. And your right, the GAP shouldn't be the only factor, although I would say the first and most important measure of comparison.
Like I said before, there are so many things that happen in Boston that aren't quantified. Boston is an international finance hub...the mutual fund was invented in Massachusetts. As a result, Boston is littered with some of the top mutual fund companies in the world (State Street, MFS, Putnam, Fidelity). As of 2008, there was over $26 trillion in mutual funds. Boston's the #3 private equity city in the world behind New York City & London. That won't show up in our GDP. Producing world leaders and future captains of industry won't necessarily show up in the GDP. The medical research performed in both Boston & Houston don't necessarily show up in our GDPs either.
I think bringing in alumni from Boston's numerous higher education instituations doesn't really count. That is more a product of a university than of Boston. Because its not like they all stay in Boston. It would be like adding all the money made by companies headquarter'd in a city, which would not make sense since not all the companies work is done in that city. It just doesnt work out, and imo, shouldn't even be brought up in this discussion. If all the presidents of the US graduated from Rice, that would mean nothing to illustrate the importance of Houston imo.
You should definitely consider things like that. By MSA you've already surpassed us in GDP, yet we continue to be considered the more powerful city by the rankings posted previously in this thread...
I would like to, but its not quantative data. It would be a lot harder to translate into wether that makes a city important or not.
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I already wrote my response, and then the page refreshed so I'll be direct. As Houston grows, it will densify, become more livable, get bigger, and become more important due to its size. And your right, the GAP shouldn't be the only factor, although I would say the first and most important measure of comparison.
What makes you think Houston's going to get denser? You guys have a lot of room to spread out.
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I think bringing in alumni from Boston's numerous higher education instituations doesn't really count. That is more a product of a university than of Boston. Because its not like they all stay in Boston. It would be like adding all the money made by companies headquarter'd in a city, which would not make sense since not all the companies work is done in that city. It just doesnt work out, and imo, shouldn't even be brought up in this discussion. If all the presidents of the US graduated from Rice, that would mean nothing to illustrate the importance of Houston imo.
I'm boggled by this: "That is more a product of a university than of Boston". That's like saying "the economic contribution of Company X is more a product of Company X and not City Y".
I think listing the alumni is totally relevant because the people received their education from Boston institutions. Education is important, right? It's a huge part of our economy and like you said, not all these students stay in Boston. In my opinion that even furthers my point. These people are trained in Boston and then go to other cities and use the skills they learned here. It's one of our main industries. Houston produces oil, Boston produces knowledge.
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I would like to, but its not quantative data. It would be a lot harder to translate into wether that makes a city important or not.
Well of the four mutual fund companies I listed (State Street, Putnam, Fidelity and MFS), they've got about $1.785 trillion under management. If we go by the $26 trillion figure for money in mutual funds currently, that makes up 6.9% of the entire world. And that's just of the four I listed. We've also got John Hancock. I'd say that's pretty important stuff, right? That's a lot of pensions/401(k)s/IRAs, etc right there.
That won't show up in our GDP. There are other things which can't be quantified, but just because we can't measure them doesn't mean we should ignore them.
I suppose it relates to the ol' "It's not the size of the boat..." saying. For example:
City X has a GDP of $300B
City Y has a GDP of $350B
I think we'd all agree that City Y is more important due to its larger GDP. But what if you found out City X was a technology/healthcare hub and City Y only produced pogo sticks and novelty foam hands? If that's the case, I think most people would consider City X to be more important.
This definitely isn't a veiled Boston/Houston comparison, so don't take it that way. I was just thinking about how often we produce numbers highlighting our city's strengths, but we rarely break that down and look at what that number is composed of.
Houston's "field" isn't high tech, but Houston's high tech jobs are growing fast.
Boston's MSA GDP is at $299B and it's 7.6million region GDP is at $415B. That's nice, but Houston's MSA alone is at $403B, and that's at a population of 5.8 million (probably closer to 6 million now). Houston's GDP has probably already passed Boston's ENTIRE CSA/region now.
Livable? I find Houston very livable. Livability rankings are all opinion.
I guess ignorance reigns supreme.
What wasn't clear? The fact that Boston is a world economic engine. The fact it's a major center of tech/research and education. Yeah they are linked. The Silicon Valley exists because the banks in SF financed the research at Stanford/Palo Alto. The same thing happend here in Boston only about 50 years ago.
"Education is the safe guard if liberty" that is the statement above the Boston Public Library. This is a place that knows that a well educated population is productive, successful, well informed and wealthy. So education is the foundation of all successful economies. Human capital won't be measured in a GDP (as was pointed out above).
I'm sure Houston is very livable. Just not as livable as Boston, which isn't as much as Honolulu or Vancouver. These aren't opinions. They calculate factors to make the study. Call up the Mercer Foundation and prove to them otherwise about Houston.
All of these studies are independent. They don't care about Boston or Houston.
But when half a dozen studies show the same thing about Boston's supremacy, a very clear conclusion HAS to be made. And any argument against better have a good source to back it up!
I feel the only thing you are doing is disputing these because they do not favor Houston. Rather then get upset about it, you should ask, why don't they? Are there other studies, I should look at, that list similar factors, that I can bring to the discussion?
you guys should just relax and realize how weakened the US would be without both cities. Can't we be friends?? imagine a Bostonian with a cowboy hat on and a Houstoner w/ a Red Sox Cap!!
What makes you think Houston's going to get denser? You guys have a lot of room to spread out.
It's more of a fact and it's more of an exaggeration when people say Houston has lots of room to grow.
I'm boggled by this: "That is more a product of a university than of Boston". That's like saying "the economic contribution of Company X is more a product of Company X and not City Y".
I think listing the alumni is totally relevant because the people received their education from Boston institutions. Education is important, right? It's a huge part of our economy and like you said, not all these students stay in Boston. In my opinion that even furthers my point. These people are trained in Boston and then go to other cities and use the skills they learned here. It's one of our main industries. Houston produces oil, Boston produces knowledge.
And Houston doesn't produce knowledge??? Boston isn't unique in that factor. Houston produces up to about 30% of the US black pharmacist (TSU). Rice, Baylor School of Medicine, University of Houston, and more.
Well of the four mutual fund companies I listed (State Street, Putnam, Fidelity and MFS), they've got about $1.785 trillion under management. If we go by the $26 trillion figure for money in mutual funds currently, that makes up 6.9% of the entire world. And that's just of the four I listed. We've also got John Hancock. I'd say that's pretty important stuff, right? That's a lot of pensions/401(k)s/IRAs, etc right there.
That won't show up in our GDP. There are other things which can't be quantified, but just because we can't measure them doesn't mean we should ignore them.
I suppose it relates to the ol' "It's not the size of the boat..." saying. For example:
City X has a GDP of $300B
City Y has a GDP of $350B
I think we'd all agree that City Y is more important due to its larger GDP. But what if you found out City X was a technology/healthcare hub and City Y only produced pogo sticks and novelty foam hands? If that's the case, I think most people would consider City X to be more important.
This definitely isn't a veiled Boston/Houston comparison, so don't take it that way. I was just thinking about how often we produce numbers highlighting our city's strengths, but we rarely break that down and look at what that number is composed of.
Overall; I don't think neither city has a large lead over the other. Boston has us in history and influence; However, I think Houston leads in importance and progressiveness (specifically growth, economy, etc). Thinking about it; I could see Boston on a higher level than Houston; However, Houston isn't exactly lagging behind.
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