The Creative Class

[Nicholas De La Cruz]

Florida claims that the creative class is a group that recently emerged from our typical view of the working class. Members of this class supposedly “create meaningful new forms” through their work and value individuality, meritocracy, and diversity. From my understanding, the workers grouped in this creative class are also those capable of reaching a higher economic status because of their creative capacities. To me, Florida is merely explaining a narrow-minded view of the American dream with egregious conclusions about this new emergence of creativity and class structure.

People generally value creativity because it allows for self-expression. To say many workers in the service class are unable to join the creative class due to a lack of creativity, whether autonomous or forced, is untrue. As a member of his self-defined creative class, Florida uses fast food workers as an example of those who cannot move up from the service class. On the other hand, he views his own “servants” as prime candidates to move up in the class hierarchy. The income between these two groups is disparate, and this leads us back to the root of movement within any sort of social class hierarchy: economic standing. Florida admits that the creative class is limited to highly educated, creative people. But, this doesn’t mean that those lacking education necessarily lack this creative sense. Fast food workers can still add their own personalities into their “taylorized” scripts. The issue is not necessarily a lack of creativity, but rather, a lack of an opportunity to develop creative skills. If creativity is locked behind higher education, then the creative class’s value in diversity is not as associated with the class as Florida believes.

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