You are here: / / In the News

Dire Effects of Tech-fueled Inequality Seen in Schools Across Nation

/in

By: Louise Perry
At: The New Statesman

The final report from the Times Education Commission, set up in 2021 to examine the future of education in Britain, makes for very grim reading indeed. It states clearly that the government wittering on about literacy and numeracy has little relevance for schools in the most deprived parts of the UK. Not when some four- and five-year-old children are unable to say their own names, and others are still using baby bottles and asking for “bot-bot” when thirsty, incapable of forming a sentence as complex as, “Can I have a drink?”

Read more

The Purple Principle Podcast: Joel Kotkin on Polarization of California Politics

/in

On: The Purple Principle Podcast
By: Barbara Bogaev and Rob Pease

“In the past, middle class and working class people trying to improve their lives came to California,” says Kotkin, who feels Texas now offers some of that upward mobility.  “I don’t think they come anymore for that.”

Has the California dream given way to a cost of living nightmare? NPR veteran and LA resident Barbara Bogaev co-hosts with Rob Pease for an in-depth discussion on the challenges faced by vast and diverse California as primary voters head to the polls.

One Golden State, one great co-host; two Democratic parties, two insightful guests, Dan Schnur and Joel Kotkin, on this episode of The Purple Principle.

Listen to this podcast:

Joel Kotkin on America’s Neo-Feudalism

/in

On: The Pacific Century
By: Michael Auslin

Michael Auslin talks with Joel Kotkin, uber-geographer, about the coming neo-feudalism and “zaibatsuization” of America’s economy, how Chinese and American economic models are converging, and how to preserve liberty in an age of oligarchic tech dominance.

Listen to this podcast:

Kotkin: Voters Concerns Not Being Addressed by Biden Administration

/in

On: GBNews
By: Inaya Folarin Iman

Joel Kotkin joins GBNews to discuss the upcoming mid-term election this fall, and whether the concerns of voters are being addressed by either party, but focuses on the current Democratic political leadership. Voters seem to be most concerned with inflation and basic economic challenges. Kotkin states:

“The Biden administration seems to be in some weird space that has very little reality”

Watch this clip:

Joel Kotkin Talks with Anthony Furey: Payback Against Political Elites

/in

By: Anthony Furey
On: The Full Comment

Voters around the world are saying they’re angry. They’re unhappy that the promise of upward mobility is over and they’re frustrated that government policies animated by elitist values keep making life harder for the middle and working classes, Joel Kotkin tells Anthony Furey this week. Younger voters around the world are already flocking to more extremist solutions after feeling abandoned by the establishment, explains Kotkin, a noted authority on global economic, political and social trends from California’s Chapman University. It’s all creating a powerful political volcano, he says, and the explosion won’t be pleasant. (Recorded April 28, 2022)

Listen to this episode:

Read more

Joel Kotkin Talks with Jane Wells about Economic Impact of Ending Roe v. Wade

/in

By: Jane Wells
On: Wells Street

How will the likely ending of Roe v. Wade affect corporate relocation decisions? Companies have been leaving, too. Stanford’s Hoover Institution reports 265 businesses relocated their headquarters outside California from 2018 through the first half of last year, including Oracle, Schwab, and CBRE.

Most of those companies moved to Texas, where abortion is currently banned after about six weeks of pregnancy. Elon Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas, along with one of his other ventures, The Boring Company. Could SpaceX follow? One can only imagine what Twitter employees in San Francisco are thinking. “I’m not moving to Texas, especially not now.”

“The Roe decision will probably have more impact on highly educated white women than minorities,” says Joel Kotkin. “They [are] more likely to be able to afford living in some of the more expensive blue states.”

Watch this episode:

Read more

Best & Worst States For Business 2022: Inside The Heartland Revolution!

/in

By: Dale Buss
On: Chief Executive

The U.S. Capitol chamber of the House of Representatives has spotlighted dozens of distinguished guests for applause during presidents’ State of the Union addresses, including war heroes, scientists, civil-rights pioneers, athletes and entrepreneurs. But honoring CEOs has been rare in the 40 years since President Ronald Reagan started the tradition. Read more

Welcome to the New Middle Ages

/in

By: Ed West
On: UnHerd

Today the richest 40 Americans have more wealth than the poorest 185 million Americans. The leading 100 landowners now own 40 million acres of American land, an area the size of New England. There has been a vast increase in American inequality since the mid-20th century, and Europe — though some way behind — is on a similar course.

These are among the alarming stats cited by Joel Kotkin’s The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, published just as lockdown sped up some of the trends he chronicled: increased tech dominance, rising inequality between rich and poor, not just in wealth but in health, and record levels of loneliness (4,000 Japanese people die alone each week, he cheerfully informs us). Read more

Joel Kotkin on Big Cities are Past Their Prime at Intelligence Squared Debate

/in

By: John Donovan
On: Intelligence Squared Debates

New York. Los Angeles. Boston. San Francisco. Call them America’s “superstars.” With mega populations, these urban hubs have long reigned as the nation’s economic, social, and cultural capitals. But big cities have also been the hardest hit by the pandemic. “Zoom towns” are springing up across the country as professionals leave the city in droves. Even more, the pandemic has brought economic and social inequality into sharp focus for the nation’s lawmakers. And some, particularly in large cities that boast the most obvious cases of such inequality, are enacting new progressive policies and laws that seek to combat inequality. For some, this means a new financial structure that makes city life less compelling for those in higher income brackets. Will megacities keep their magnetism in the wake of Covid-19? Or are their best days behind them?

Listen to this episode at Intelligence Squared Debates

Read more

Joel Kotkin Talks with Amanda Vanstone about the Limits of Libertarianism

/in

By: Amanda Vanstone
On: Counterpoint

What are the limits of libertarianism? Joel Kotkin explains that ‘in recent years, libertarians increasingly seem less concerned with how their policies might actually impact people. Convinced that markets are virtually always the best way to approach any issue, they have allied with many of the same forces – monopoly capital, anti-suburban zealots and the tech-oligarchy – which are systematically undermining the popular rationale for market capitalism’. He goes through some core libertarian beliefs and how they’ve changed and says that ‘in many ways, libertarians, like all of us, are victims of history’ and that to become relevant again, libertarians need to go beyond their dogmatic attachments, focus on bolstering the vitality competitive free markets’. That ‘libertarian ideas still have great relevance, but only so much as they reflect markets that are open to competition and capable of improving everyday lives’.

Listen to this episode:

Read more