Richard Florida

Los Estados Unidos de América —durante generaciones conocidos en todo el mundo como la tierra de las oportunidades y la innovación— están a punto de perder su ventaja competitiva. Se enfrenta quizás a su mayor desafío económico desde los albores de la revolución industrial. Este desafío tiene poco que ver con los costes empresariales y menos aún con la destreza de fabricación. Y, no, las principales amenazas competitivas no provienen de China ni de la India.

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Reprint: R0410H 

The strength of the American economy does not rest on its manufacturing prowess, its natural resources, or the size of its market. It turns on one factor&#8212;the country&#8217;s openness to new ideas, which has allowed it to attract the brightest minds from around the world and harness their creative energies.
But the United States is on the verge of losing that competitive edge. As the nation tightens its borders to students and scientists and subjects federal research funding to ideological and religious litmus tests, many other countries are stepping in to lure that creative capital away. Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and others are spending more on research and development and shoring up their universities in an effort to attract the world&#8217;s best&#8212;including Americans. If even a few of these nations draw away just a small percentage of the creative workers from the U.S., the effect on its economy will be enormous.
In this article, the author introduces a quantitative measure of the migration of creative capital called the Global Creative-Class Index. It shows that, far from leading the world, the United States doesn&#8217;t even rank in the top ten in the percentage of its workforce engaged in creative occupations. What&#8217;s more, the baby boomers will soon retire. And data showing large drops in foreign student applications to U.S. universities and in the number of visas issued to knowledge workers, along with concomitant increases in immigration in other countries, suggest that the erosion of talent from the United States will only intensify.
To defend the U.S. economy, the business community must take the lead in ensuring that global talent can move efficiently across borders, that education and research are funded at radically higher levels, and that we tap into the creative potential of more and more workers. Because wherever creativity goes, economic growth is sure to follow.

America’s Looming Creativity Crisis

Reimpresión: R0410H La fortaleza de la economía estadounidense no se basa en su destreza manufacturera, sus recursos naturales o el tamaño de su mercado. Depende de un factor: la apertura del país a nuevas ideas, lo que le ha permitido atraer a las mentes más brillantes de todo el mundo y aprovechar sus energías creativas. Pero los Estados Unidos están a punto de perder esa ventaja competitiva. A medida que el país estrecha sus fronteras a los estudiantes y científicos y somete la financiación federal para la investigación a pruebas de fuego ideológicas y religiosas, muchos otros países intervienen para atraer ese capital creativo. Irlanda, Canadá, Australia, Nueva Zelanda, Dinamarca y otros están gastando más en investigación y desarrollo y reforzando sus universidades en un esfuerzo por atraer a los mejores del mundo, incluidos los estadounidenses. Si tan solo unos pocos de estos países atraen a un pequeño porcentaje de los trabajadores creativos de los EE. UU., el efecto en su economía será enorme. En este artículo, el autor presenta una medida cuantitativa de la migración del capital creativo llamada índice mundial de clase creativa. Demuestra que, lejos de liderar el mundo, los Estados Unidos ni siquiera figuran entre los diez primeros en porcentaje de su fuerza laboral que se dedica a ocupaciones creativas. Es más, los baby boomers se jubilarán pronto. Y los datos que muestran una gran caída en las solicitudes de estudiantes extranjeros a las universidades estadounidenses y en el número de visados emitidos a trabajadores del conocimiento, junto con el consiguiente aumento de la inmigración en otros países, sugieren que la erosión del talento de los Estados Unidos no hará más que intensificarse. Para defender la economía estadounidense, la comunidad empresarial debe tomar la iniciativa para garantizar que el talento mundial pueda moverse de manera eficiente a través de las fronteras, que la educación y la investigación se financien a niveles radicalmente más altos y que aprovechemos el potencial creativo de cada vez más trabajadores. Porque allá donde vaya la creatividad, seguro que le seguirá el crecimiento económico.

La inminente crisis de creatividad en Estados Unidos

Reprint: R0410H The strength of the American economy does not rest on its manufacturing prowess, its natural resources, or the size of its market. It turns on one factor—the country’s openness to new ideas, which has allowed it to attract the brightest minds from around the world and harness their creative energies. But the United States is on the verge of losing that competitive edge. As the nation tightens its borders to students and scientists and subjects federal research funding to ideological and religious litmus tests, many other countries are stepping in to lure that creative capital away. Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and others are spending more on research and development and shoring up their universities in an effort to attract the world’s best—including Americans. If even a few of these nations draw away just a small percentage of the creative workers from the U.S., the effect on its economy will be enormous. In this article, the author introduces a quantitative measure of the migration of creative capital called the Global Creative-Class Index. It shows that, far from leading the world, the United States doesn’t even rank in the top ten in the percentage of its workforce engaged in creative occupations. What’s more, the baby boomers will soon retire. And data showing large drops in foreign student applications to U.S. universities and in the number of visas issued to knowledge workers, along with concomitant increases in immigration in other countries, suggest that the erosion of talent from the United States will only intensify. To defend the U.S. economy, the business community must take the lead in ensuring that global talent can move efficiently across borders, that education and research are funded at radically higher levels, and that we tap into the creative potential of more and more workers. Because wherever creativity goes, economic growth is sure to follow.

La inminente crisis de creatividad en Estados Unidos

Resumen.

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