EU keen to enshrine culture in economic planning

[DavidDvorkin]

Europe should invest more in its creative industries as a source of future growth the European Commission has said, while EU ministers have called for culture to be put at the "heart" of the bloc's new economic plan, the Europe 2020 strategy.

The EU executive is in late April set to adopt its "Green Paper on Cultural and Creative Industries," aimed at unlocking the economic potential of cultural and creative industries in Europe - a sector that generates 5 million jobs and represents 2.6 percent of GDP in the 27-nation bloc.

The sector includes areas as diverse as cinema, music, publishing, the media, fashion, interior and product design, cultural tourism, performing arts and heritage.

http://euobserver.com/9/29802

I'd love to see that attitude here in the US.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The trouble is that much of that is 'luxury' that is the first thing to be given up

if the global economy has problems. Some things like fashion are dependent on people feeling rich enough to be able to flaunt their wealth via their clothes; most of the rest of it is leisure spending - again, fine if people are optimistic and have enough money to choose what to spend it on (and by and large you don't get anything concrete for your money, just enjoyment at that moment).

I don't think that can be the 'heart' of an economic plan for anything larger than a city. You can't base an economy of 490 million people on it.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Who claimed one could base an economy on culture?

The OP states specific percentages of GDP and number of jobs created. How about sticking to the facts? And it stuns me how many people read 'culture' as 'buying expensive things'. Yesterday someone played the same card, who is going to 'buy the art' and as I told that one, I spent my life in the arts, and never once did I have a 'product' that needed a single 'buyer'. Most of what I did was free to the audience. Lucrative for me. Free to them. Funny how that works.
You should also understand that just as in the human body, the heart of a nation is not the largest part, just the driving element.
Fashion is my least favorite of creative expressions, but the idea that cloths are simply 'to flaut wealth' flies in the face of necessity, we all wear clothes, rich or poor, and a designer could be form focused or function focused. That means, 'a warm coat that can be priced low' is a product of fashion design just as much or more than a Haute gown. School uniforms and work uniforms are also fashion, designed, and people have to live in that. What are they flaunting?
But at the core of what I am saying is this: the article states facts and figures, to which you respond with opinions. Is the EU incorrect? Should they purge those millions of jobs?
Here is a fact to chew on: one of the top five tourism draws to Ireland is James Joyce, a writer who has been dead for a very long time indeed. They know what they are talking about. Why do people go to Amsterdam? Many reasons, but one reason is VanGogh. People go there and spend like mad, just to see those paintings. No one buys them. They simply look at them.
Your theories might hold in a dead world, where there is a real lack of trade and economy, a world where survival is the whole. Until people stop buying clothes, going places, learning things, being entertained, eating, dancing, culture is and will always be a large, and more than large, a key element in any thriving economy, an element that supports and feeds other elements of that economy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. 'EU ministers have called for culture to be put at the "heart" of the bloc's new economic plan'

It's the first quoted paragraph.

The OP does indeed specify a percentage of GDP - 2.6%. It's not much, is it? Do you think the world is in a good position to spend a lot more on things that aren't necessities?

"the idea that cloths are simply 'to flaut wealth' flies in the face of necessity, we all wear clothes, rich or poor"

Neither I nor the article said clothing; we both said 'fashion'. Which is about creating new looks on a regular basis, and that is largely about showing you are wealthy enough to buy clothes for looks and newness, not necessity. It wouldn't be a creative industry otherwise, would it? It would just be a staple industry, producing goods that fit an unchanging need. The designers of fridges aren't called 'fashion designers'. They aren't creating a market that follows fashion.

"Is the EU incorrect? Should they purge those millions of jobs?"

Yes, and no. Yes, it's incorrect that these creative industries should be the heart of the EU economy. The heart should be agriculture, energy, housing, transport, manufacturing - the kinds of things that most people have to spend most of their money on. Should they purge the millions of jobs already in the creative industry? No. But they shouldn't think that they will be the centre of the EU's economy. The future isn't a shining utopia where the whole world gets are rich as suburban Americans and can spend a lot of its wealth on optional extras. Either we cut back on our energy use, or global warming takes off in a catastrophic way.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[msongs]

3. culture of guns and war don't count do they? nt

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Not in modern Europe

Good novels and memoirs result from wars, but what a price to pay for some good reading!