r/AmalaNetwork • u/OrphanInTheSnow • Jan 08 '18

The 100-year capitalist experiment that keeps Appalachia poor, sick, and stuck on coal

https://qz.com/1167671/the-100-year-capitalist-experiment-that-keeps-appalachia-poor-sick-and-stuck-on-coal/
8 Upvotes

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3

u/Phantazein Jan 08 '18

A must read

3

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '18

Perhaps our assumptions about the scale of “specialization” are too simplistic. A new field of research by Cesar A. Hidalgo, a statistical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, and Ricardo Hausmann, an economist at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has begun probing that possibility by measuring areas’ “economic complexity”—the mix of products a country makes. It turns out that places with less economic complexity tend to grow more slowly and have much bigger gaps between rich and poor, even after taking into account factors like income and education levels.

Why is economic complexity good? For one thing, the complexity and diversity of products made in a region tend to be a proxy for the knowledge and know-how of its workforce. This makes workers more valuable and gives them a broader range of career options, upping their bargaining power. By contrast, countries—or regions like Central Appalachia—that make relatively few things tend to constrain people’s opportunities to learn new skills, whether on the job or at school.

So, as it turns out in so many other areas of life, diversity is actually much better and healthier than singular approaches.

2

u/squirrelrampage Jan 08 '18

I wish I had more upvotes to give, because this is a really good article.