The point of the finance industry is to facilitate the consistent flow of money. While it is an important industry, if the city overly relies on finance, then its economy would be heavily dependent on the world economy, which is volatile. We have seen the consequences of the city’s economy being influenced by that of rest of the world with the Great Recession. By growing the city’s tech sector, we can reduce New York City’s dependence on the world economy. The tech sector also has more employment opportunities. Aside from work in established firms, people in the tech sector can work freelance, full-time or part-time. The Center for an Urban Future reports that the amount of part-time freelance jobs increased by 51%. The fast-changing nature of the industry also allows for the flow of new ideas. Innovators can create startups to realize these ideas and New York City is one of the world’s biggest hubs of innovation. In 2015, NYC-based tech startups had around $6.66 billion in venture capital.
On the other hand, many see the sector’s penchant for automation as a threat to city employment. Most of the working population is not educated in the skills needed to survive in the tech industry. As a result, a sudden shift to tech could leave millions unemployed. However, if that happens, it will not last forever. Computer Science is quickly becoming one of the most sought after majors in the United States. The sector is still fairly young, leaving a great opportunity for growth. Also, the rise of coding bootcamps and online coding academies are replacing the roles that colleges held for educating aspiring computer programmers and engineers. These new schools are not like the standard Computer Science education offered in college in that students do not have to take abstract courses on the idea of programming or developing skills to prepare for programming. Instead, these schools focus only on making people into programmers by teaching only courses in learning programming languages and immediately exposing students to the advanced techniques that may take years for students in college to access. One bootcamp called the Dev Bootcamp proclaims that they can take a person new to computers and turn him/her into a full-fledged programmer in only 19 weeks. People who may not have had a proper college education or even a high school education can become programmers under these programs. The cost is a bit prohibitive with tuition averaging around $10,000, but the potential return is high with the currently high demand for labor. Not to mention, there is talk of adding programming to our core K-12 curriculum. In an industry known for its fairly young labor force, core programming curriculum can mean that post-secondary education may not even be necessary for future generations. Over time, the wider labor force should be able to shift smoothly towards tech.
Civic tech is another potential benefit of technological innovation. In the past, the government was largely inaccessible to the average citizen. It was once hard for people to commit to causes and organize with other like-minded people due to a lack of communication. However, the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter coupled with civic technologies such as Neighborland, people are now able to organize faster than ever. All protests that occur in the city are organized online. Like-minded people can congregate on a single website. Even then, it’s still difficult for citizens to participate in elections because people either have other obligations or no reliable form of transport. This showed recently in the Massachusetts Democratic primaries where voters in several precincts reported that they were blocked from the voting lines due to a rallies held nearby. Never mind the fact that these rallies may have been examples of blatant voter fraud, the fact that things as simple as rallies can stop people from voting shows the inefficiency in the current voting system which requires people to be physically present at certain places in order to vote. Another form of civic technology which allows people to submit votes electronically can simplify the voting process and increase participation.
There is a concern that rise of social media and civic tech could mean that while there is more participation, those who do participate are less informed due to the rather low attention-span of the internet and the ability for misinformation to proliferate. However, with the speed at which people are able to access information via the internet, it’s difficult for people to completely uninformed. As quickly as one article can spread in support of one side, another article in opposition can spread just as quickly. Inevitably, those who do take the time to find out the truth will be the ones who do participate the most.
Excellent analysis, Christian. Bear in mind, however, that many New Yorkers, especially those without a college education, cannot afford $10,000 tuition for a coding course. So is there a need for government–or potential employers as a group–to pay for students to take these courses? In the old industrial days, up to the 1970s, employers from a small factory to IBM provided on-the-job training; now they do not, at least for the lower levels of jobs. Also, you end by saying that those with the motivation to seek information will be well informed to vote. Perhaps some people do not have time to seek information? Research shows that many people limit their means of information–via Facebook news feeds and other web-based sources–to those they know they will agree with. Not very good!