Creative Class

How many of you are startled and even a bit frightened at the lack of attention the rapidly worsening global warming crisis is receiving in the U.S. in particular? Yes, there is vague talk from the incoming U.S. President about global warming, but, in fact, the U.S. government is trying everything in its power to boost consumption and raise housing prices in an effort to reignite the housing bubble. Obama is talking about massive infrastructure programs and yet, when you examine the plans, it is largely about building highways with some money for energy conservation in government building retrofits. All of this will be done on a wave of deficit spending that is likely to pauperize the remaining U.S. middle class.

Highway building and energy conservation measures will fail to rein in global warming because hydrocarbon energy is too inexpensive in the U.S. Odd isn’t it, only six months ago, because of the price increases, the U.S. was treating energy conservation as a serious topic. Miles driven were dropping, people were demanding better mass transit, and the move back to the city was being celebrated. The price mechanism was addressing the global warming problem, though it did affect the poor disproportionately. Today, with gasoline prices down, miles driven are increasing, and once again traffic jams and the behemoth SUVs are back.

There is an obvious measure that can address our fiscal deficit and global warming – raise gas taxes, say $0.50 immediately, then after three months another $0.25, and again another $0.25 in another three months (the more one increases, the stronger the signal to consumers is). The phasing in of the increases would provide warnings to auto buyers to choose more fuel-efficient vehicles. This would be a serious response to global warming and the fiscal deficit, but there are no voices demanding such an obvious policy.

You don’t need to be a member of the Creative Class to see how disconnected from reality the policy discussions in Washington, D.C. are. No discussions of raising taxes to address an enormous and spiraling deficit. No discussions of serious policies to discourage the consumption of fossil fuels. The U.S. is today operating on what I term “crackpot optimism,” which I will discuss further in future posts.

After a series of bailouts organized in Washington and London, the truth of the current situation is finally becoming startlingly plain. We are in a fundamental economic, social, and political crisis. A new frugality will be forced upon citizens of the developed world regardless of whether they want it or not. The question for all societies will be how to deal with the extremely serious dislocations that will wrack our societies.

This will test whether, in the terms of Erik Olin Wright, the creative class will become a class not “in itself,” in other words, having its own interests, but not being able to express them, but rather a class “for itself.”  In the 1930s, the industrial working class in the U.S. and Western Europe moved from being a class “in itself” to being a class for itself and transformed the political economy. Can the “creative class” do this?  In other words, this is the test of whether it is a class.

Why must the creative class act? It must be the driving force for change. If there is no transformative energy, then we will have a long and brutish decline.

There are some things that we believe that the creative class will be for. For example, it should now begin to act, in its individual lives and as a political force, regarding the environment and global warming. As Rich has already spoken about tolerance, there is little need to mention that. Can we be “frugal” in terms of lowering our footprint on the planet?  Should we envy and want a massive 12 cylinder sports car? Can we do that?

I welcome your reactions and suggestions. In my mind, the new frugality is a mark of seriousness. What can and should we be doing? We must open this debate now.