Goals for the day:
We started today finishing up a few things from Monday.
I showed this list of actual indices that different groups use instead of GDP to measure economic performance. You’ll see many of the same indicators that were on your little slips of paper yesterday. I also showed these three graphs: GDP, GDP vs. Subjective Well-Being, and a Steady-State Economy. The second graph shows what Keagan and I were talking about yesterday: above $30,000, surveys show that subjective well-being stays about the same as per capita income and production increases.
This is all prelude to you having the chance to reflect on what this all means. Here are the questions that I asked you to journal on:
In talking about this, most of you said that economies need to develop to a certain point before they can grow. This makes sense, but many people argue the opposite that in order to develop economies have to grow.
I shared this list of definitions of economic development and compared it to your answers from the case studies of yesterday. Remember that economic development takes place over a long-period of time; economic growth is more about short-term production.
Next we used your notes to build a timeline of Southwest Colorado’s economic history. These notes are all in this Google Doc. At the end, we summarized what contributed to economic development and what has held Southern Colorado back. This is at the bottom of the document.
After break, I showed this short video about a transit-oriented development project in Oakland called Fruitvale Village. I provided a little background on this project that took eleven years to complete but has been a real success story.
I then asked you to open this Google Doc that provides an outline worksheet for your economic development proposal. We’ll be using this worksheet over the next several days and so I asked you to download this document so you can work on it yourself. Even if you decide that economic development isn’t your thing and you don’t want to submit a full proposal, this worksheet is a good place to store your classwork.
I asked you to enter a quick summary of the most important points you took away from our discussion of local economic history.
Finally, I passed out this list of economic development strategies. I asked you to rank your top five relative to whether they would work for our area. I wanted you to connect the economic history of our area with a strategy going forward. I asked you to enter your choice and your rationale into the Google Doc outline under “Strategy” in the Rationale section. Several of the strategies overlap and you can blend them to come up with something that you believe in.
We ended class with a quick shoot around about the downsides of each strategy. Each strategy has drawbacks or can come with unintended consequences or can get off track…It’s important to recognize these and think critically about how to implement your strategy so it has the most positive impact. Tomorrow we’ll move from strategies to actual projects.
Homework due Wednesday, February 5th
Read the overview of the Economic Development Proposal and come with any questions, concerns or ideas
- Put together their own local economic story
- Connect this story to one of the approaches to economic development
We started today finishing up a few things from Monday.
I showed this list of actual indices that different groups use instead of GDP to measure economic performance. You’ll see many of the same indicators that were on your little slips of paper yesterday. I also showed these three graphs: GDP, GDP vs. Subjective Well-Being, and a Steady-State Economy. The second graph shows what Keagan and I were talking about yesterday: above $30,000, surveys show that subjective well-being stays about the same as per capita income and production increases.
This is all prelude to you having the chance to reflect on what this all means. Here are the questions that I asked you to journal on:
- What is the relationship between economic development as you understand it and economic growth?
- How does this discussion support or challenge your personal definition of wealth?
In talking about this, most of you said that economies need to develop to a certain point before they can grow. This makes sense, but many people argue the opposite that in order to develop economies have to grow.
I shared this list of definitions of economic development and compared it to your answers from the case studies of yesterday. Remember that economic development takes place over a long-period of time; economic growth is more about short-term production.
Next we used your notes to build a timeline of Southwest Colorado’s economic history. These notes are all in this Google Doc. At the end, we summarized what contributed to economic development and what has held Southern Colorado back. This is at the bottom of the document.
After break, I showed this short video about a transit-oriented development project in Oakland called Fruitvale Village. I provided a little background on this project that took eleven years to complete but has been a real success story.
I then asked you to open this Google Doc that provides an outline worksheet for your economic development proposal. We’ll be using this worksheet over the next several days and so I asked you to download this document so you can work on it yourself. Even if you decide that economic development isn’t your thing and you don’t want to submit a full proposal, this worksheet is a good place to store your classwork.
I asked you to enter a quick summary of the most important points you took away from our discussion of local economic history.
Finally, I passed out this list of economic development strategies. I asked you to rank your top five relative to whether they would work for our area. I wanted you to connect the economic history of our area with a strategy going forward. I asked you to enter your choice and your rationale into the Google Doc outline under “Strategy” in the Rationale section. Several of the strategies overlap and you can blend them to come up with something that you believe in.
We ended class with a quick shoot around about the downsides of each strategy. Each strategy has drawbacks or can come with unintended consequences or can get off track…It’s important to recognize these and think critically about how to implement your strategy so it has the most positive impact. Tomorrow we’ll move from strategies to actual projects.
Homework due Wednesday, February 5th
Read the overview of the Economic Development Proposal and come with any questions, concerns or ideas