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The author says that the region is poor because, after the decline of industry, it didn’t have universities to drive tech, finance and services. But it sounds l
by intalentive 2y ago
The author says that the region is poor because, after the decline of industry, it didn’t have universities to drive tech, finance and services. But it sounds like the problem is simply deindustrialization in the first place, same as the US Rust Belt.
Material wealth means having stuff. You can only get stuff by making it or taking it from the earth.
Meanwhile Chinese cities are sparkling and new, and their workers enjoy a high standard of living at low cost, not unlike Northern England or Cleveland, Ohio 100 years ago.
Because they make a lot of stuff. It’s that simple.
- Neonlicht 2y agoDeindustrialization happened all across Europe. Some countries got over it and found new ways to make money. Besides you can make money with trading stuff... Anything that is sold in central Europe has to pass through the port of Rotterdam.
- snowwrestler 2y agoIndustrialization worked for China recently for the same reason it worked for western nations more than a century ago: you can drive local economic growth even if the population has low education. Once you have a strong local economy based on manufacturing, you have to drive innovation to sustain it. So you use the economic output to fund education and research, to create new categories of products and services, which create durable competitive advantage. The U.S. has succeeded wildly with this playbook. China is currently following this playbook. The author is saying that the playbook in Northern England was interrupted by the South.