"When you factor in medium and small metros too, Ithaca comes in first, with nearly 30 percent (28.9 percent) of adults holding a graduate or professional degree."
This is not necessarily a good thing. While living in the home town of Cornell U., I met a lot of underemployed people -- e.g., a holder of an MA degree, working as a staff assistant in the French Department, while their spouse finished up grad school. The amount of surplus intellect was staggering.
You're right that having a graduate degree isn't a guarantee of having a "super-brain", but having a graduate or professional degree is probably a good proxy for the type of socioeconomic inferences they are trying to make.
It's an informal and humorous phrase the writer used to make the article less dry. They don't appear to be seriously claiming that people with advanced degrees are actually "super-brains".
Very interesting. I sometimes wonder why Detroit, with all that available, inexpensive facilities and infrastructure, doesn't advertise itself as a center for engineering talent. Why aren't people who need such things doing it in Detroit, where it's cheap?
> engineering, the key to tech- and knowledge-based industries.
To take one phrase and make a larger point: Engineering provides us with information and the tools to use it. Using knowledge (from our goals to our understanding of the world) generally is the province of the sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts (to th extent an artist works with data).
> Very interesting. I sometimes wonder why Detroit, with all that available, inexpensive facilities and infrastructure, doesn't advertise itself as a center for engineering talent. Why aren't people who need such things doing it in Detroit, where it's cheap?
As I understand it the main reason is:
AFAIK, what's cheap in Detroit is labor, particularly unskilled labor, and disused facilities that may require substantial remediation to serve their original purpose, and may be more expensive to turn to new purposes than building fresh somewhere else.
What's not cheap in Detroit is the things that firms that need engineering talent need, including engineering talent.
> Very interesting. I sometimes wonder why Detroit, with all that available, inexpensive facilities and infrastructure, doesn't advertise itself as a center for engineering talent. Why aren't people who need such things doing it in Detroit, where it's cheap?
What is cheap? Isn't personnel the main cost is tech/engineering companies? This is about convincing folks to live in Detroit
Because you'll have a hell of a time convincing people to move to Detroit?
If you're not going to be shackled to the Bay area, why not pick... Pretty much anywhere else? If you want cheap, why not Pittsburgh? Or Portland? Engineering wages in both are quite low.
I also wonder why a country that has such a high interest from foreigners wanting to live in it, dont create a special immigration policy, where it would accept highly educated workforce, as long as they are willing to live in places like Detroit, so those sort of cities could be eventually recovered..
Something like grant citizenship, but only if they accept to not migrate to anywhere else for lets say, 10 years. The government would then choose particular spots that could possibly get back from the dead, like Detroit.
> I sometimes wonder why Detroit, with all that available, inexpensive facilities and infrastructure, doesn't advertise itself as a center for engineering talent.
[+] [-] mturmon|10 years ago|reply
This is not necessarily a good thing. While living in the home town of Cornell U., I met a lot of underemployed people -- e.g., a holder of an MA degree, working as a staff assistant in the French Department, while their spouse finished up grad school. The amount of surplus intellect was staggering.
[+] [-] xiaoma|10 years ago|reply
The entire premise is flawed. Having a graduate degree is no guarantee having a "super-brain".
[+] [-] adenadel|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mjb|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epalmer|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hackuser|10 years ago|reply
> engineering, the key to tech- and knowledge-based industries.
To take one phrase and make a larger point: Engineering provides us with information and the tools to use it. Using knowledge (from our goals to our understanding of the world) generally is the province of the sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts (to th extent an artist works with data).
[+] [-] dragonwriter|10 years ago|reply
As I understand it the main reason is:
AFAIK, what's cheap in Detroit is labor, particularly unskilled labor, and disused facilities that may require substantial remediation to serve their original purpose, and may be more expensive to turn to new purposes than building fresh somewhere else.
What's not cheap in Detroit is the things that firms that need engineering talent need, including engineering talent.
[+] [-] eliben|10 years ago|reply
What is cheap? Isn't personnel the main cost is tech/engineering companies? This is about convincing folks to live in Detroit
[+] [-] vkou|10 years ago|reply
If you're not going to be shackled to the Bay area, why not pick... Pretty much anywhere else? If you want cheap, why not Pittsburgh? Or Portland? Engineering wages in both are quite low.
[+] [-] oscargrouch|10 years ago|reply
Something like grant citizenship, but only if they accept to not migrate to anywhere else for lets say, 10 years. The government would then choose particular spots that could possibly get back from the dead, like Detroit.
[+] [-] maxsilver|10 years ago|reply
They are trying. http://opportunitydetroit.com/
But so is almost every other small / medium / large city in the Midwest. It's hard to stand out by trying to use a "me too" branding.
[+] [-] rdl|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sosuke|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ch4s3|10 years ago|reply