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The best way to actually disperse economic access is from the ground up: target the inputs to industry and create regional cost advantages. The US famously did

by ethbr0 5y ago

The best way to actually disperse economic access is from the ground up: target the inputs to industry and create regional cost advantages. The US famously did this by electrifying Appalachia via hydroelectric dam construction, which created a power cost advantage, which drove power-hungry heavy industry (chemical, metallurgy) to the area. Unfortunately, this is a 30+ year long game, so requires more interest in true change and outcomes vs ones political career. Black hole-ism in Europe seems like a historical response to a geopolitically fractured and competitive continent, as disparate states all tried to centralize their most valuable / productive industry in their (mostly) centralized capitals. Why invest in a border city, if for much of European history there was a good chance of it changing hands?

lifeisstillgood 5y ago
>> The best way to actually disperse economic access is from the ground up: target the inputs to industry and create regional cost advantages. I'm dubious this still can work. Electrification was like steam - fundamentally transformative compared to all previous human history. It's hard to now put "cheap" inputs into almost any part of the UK - coal? nuclear? We have been mining the raw resources for something like 5,000 years in cornwall. There is not a lot left. Interested in counter examples or ideas but this feels a lot like "build cities not so centred around cars" Edit: are you saying that you give cost advantages to a region in a country? Say Cornwall will be the tech hub, North East will be aerospace, etc? Which it's probably possible to make an area an aerospace local maxima. but will that compete globally? do we set up tariffs? I genuinely am interested because otherwise it's a crapshoot.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  It's really two different questions. #1 How do you create incentives to locate profitable businesses in economically depressed areas? #2 How do you create competitive global businesses? The latter question is really a more complicated valuation of possible end state, current global market state and opportunities, and how much capital the nation is prepared to invest. South Korea and Japan (and SE Asia) would be modern examples. The former question is a bit simpler, because all the levers are in national government hands (or proxies for those levers). Although it's a process that still takes time, as businesses organically form, relocate, and scale in light of the new local maximum, and economies of colocation organize. If asked to pick, I'd say the biggest modern inputs that can be influenced by the government would be: temporary tax incentives, capital access at competitive rates, access to sufficient local supply of trained and knowledgeable labor, low carbon / cheap power, global network access at reasonable rates (or at least sufficient capacity to nearest backbone), and local upstream suppliers (or room for same).
deleted 5y ago
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avianlyric 5y ago
Something worth considering is how tiny the UK is compared to the US. The Appalachia region is 200,000sq miles, over double the area of the UK (94,000sq miles). The UK is smaller than the top nine largest states in the US, you can drive the entire length of the the UK in 14 hours. We’re a tiny nation compared to the US (we only have a single power distribution grid!). Creating meaningful regional advantages can be tricky in the UK because the regions are so small, and so close together. Interestingly the approach we seem to be following is increase mobility and regional integration, thus making it easier for companies to hire outside of London, without taking a hit due to distance. That way companies and employees can take advantage of lower wage and cost of living respectively, them that outflow of money can pour into local communities around the UK as employees spend their wages.

by ethbr0 5y ago

lifeisstillgood 5y ago

>> The best way to actually disperse economic access is from the ground up: target the inputs to industry and create regional cost advantages. I'm dubious this still can work. Electrification was like steam - fundamentally transformative compared to all previous human history. It's hard to now put "cheap" inputs into almost any part of the UK - coal? nuclear? We have been mining the raw resources for something like 5,000 years in cornwall. There is not a lot left. Interested in counter examples or ideas but this feels a lot like "build cities not so centred around cars" Edit: are you saying that you give cost advantages to a region in a country? Say Cornwall will be the tech hub, North East will be aerospace, etc? Which it's probably possible to make an area an aerospace local maxima. but will that compete globally? do we set up tariffs? I genuinely am interested because otherwise it's a crapshoot.

ethbr0 5y ago
It's really two different questions. #1 How do you create incentives to locate profitable businesses in economically depressed areas? #2 How do you create competitive global businesses? The latter question is really a more complicated valuation of possible end state, current global market state and opportunities, and how much capital the nation is prepared to invest. South Korea and Japan (and SE Asia) would be modern examples. The former question is a bit simpler, because all the levers are in national government hands (or proxies for those levers). Although it's a process that still takes time, as businesses organically form, relocate, and scale in light of the new local maximum, and economies of colocation organize. If asked to pick, I'd say the biggest modern inputs that can be influenced by the government would be: temporary tax incentives, capital access at competitive rates, access to sufficient local supply of trained and knowledgeable labor, low carbon / cheap power, global network access at reasonable rates (or at least sufficient capacity to nearest backbone), and local upstream suppliers (or room for same).

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

avianlyric 5y ago

Something worth considering is how tiny the UK is compared to the US. The Appalachia region is 200,000sq miles, over double the area of the UK (94,000sq miles). The UK is smaller than the top nine largest states in the US, you can drive the entire length of the the UK in 14 hours. We’re a tiny nation compared to the US (we only have a single power distribution grid!). Creating meaningful regional advantages can be tricky in the UK because the regions are so small, and so close together. Interestingly the approach we seem to be following is increase mobility and regional integration, thus making it easier for companies to hire outside of London, without taking a hit due to distance. That way companies and employees can take advantage of lower wage and cost of living respectively, them that outflow of money can pour into local communities around the UK as employees spend their wages.