The importance of cities in our economy

THE DEMOGRAPHICS: "Manifest Destinations: The urban share of the American economy," by Marc Bain, Newsweek, 26 January 2009.

Not exactly suggesting a communitarian future of localism, distributed small-townism, etc. as the answer for complexity.

Twelve percent of the land area, but 65% of population, 67% of research universities, 68% of jobs, 75% of grad degree holders, 76% of knowledge economy jobs, 78% of patents, 79% of air cargo, 81% of R&D employment, 92% of air passenger boardings, 94% of venture capital funding, and 95% of public-transit passenger miles.

Some are kind of obvious (what, not much mass transit in the rural areas?), but others suggest that clustering makes sense economically, so metro concentrations must make sense in their native resilience. Big cities are mega-connected and all that networking allows for workarounds galore.

Good example? Would you rather be poor in the big city or in the small town?

The big city allows for all sorts of cheap connectivity, whereas the small town leaves one fairly isolated.

And I say that as someone who grew up in a decidedly non-prosperous small town.

Comments

[Dan K]

"Would you rather be poor in the big city or in the small town?"

and what percent of the crime? Violent crime - murder & rape? and what are the chances of being a victim of violent crime if you are poor in the big city?

I am an engineer who commutes over an hour to DC from a smaller town precisely due to what Tom's saying. If I get fired at 0900 I bet I could find another job in this big 5-sided building by lunchtime. However as usual Tom is thinking inside the glass box of us high-speed networked professionals. There's a lot of "little people" losing their jobs - and lives - in the margins of Tom's globalization thinking.

There's no reason small towns cannot evolve to be "resilient communities." I hope mine does; if the interdependant nature of our economy leads to it all crashing down (Katrina gives us a look of what big cities might turn into overnight if the worst happens - bond market crash, etc.) I would much rather be in a small town...

[Adam]

I concur. The percentages listed in the "city's" numbers are more than likely statistically probable...the more people, the more "stuff." There are too many MBA's in the world producing little, but supporting much. The small towns offer comfort, solace, and peace of mind. People vacation in these small towns, like Minaqua WI; Brainerd, MN; Griffin, Ga; Easton, MD; why? To escape the "business metro."Small town locale has a built in buffer from meltdowns. Start with California and New York. Extreme amounts of GDP, extreme cost vs income. Now parallel that to cities vs. small towns, same concept.