I just finished reading Richard Florida’s new book, “The Great Reset” (I’ll let you Amazon it…) and was less than impressed. Florida does a fair job of outlining how we got here, but its stuff you mostly know about the collapse of the banking system, overinflated housing prices, loss of jobs overseas, and the rise of suburbs. Yep. Yep. Yep.
There's nothing snazzier and more 2010 than a Rubic's cube
His concept (kindof like a movie pitch) is that we’re not going into a depression, it’s a reset. It’s normal. And yes, it hurts. But hopefully not us. (I mean you and me and of course Richard Florida.) He gives a few “success” stories of cities that have weathered some earlier incarnations of the “reset” — Boston and Pittsburgh. But really offers no compelling advice, or at least nothing new. Yes, we’re supposed to improve our education system to provide educated workers. Yes, we’re supposed to become more urban. Yes, we’re supposed to increase the value of the service and idea economy.
Okay…. So then what?
He’s got this idea that new technology and new ideas will spring up, as if by magic. And that will save us. And we don’t know what these are. Government, he says, can help, but maybe not.
(How about creating a powerful Green economy to improve energy efficiency, increase rail and public transportation and provide more locally grown foodstuffs? These are hinted at but not really built on.)
In the meantime, there’s not alot to go on about how to survive the reset.
Great title though.