Motivations

One of the motivations for starting this blog is to share some thoughts and reactions to economic events in a way that elevates the level of discourse in today's culture. This is not an easy feat with the rise of social media. While social media can be a useful tool in some instances there are a numerous drawbacks to making it a core source of information. As Mark Blyth once stated “Twitter is not information its perspiration”. At one point there was an increase in Citizen Journalism via blogs. What was great about Citizen Journalism is that these where individuals who really took a serious interest in a subject and approached it in such a way to make them a Subject Matter Expert, at least enough to make the subject accessible to the layperson, without any formal training.  However as a result of Google and YouTube monetization schemes becoming a popular motivation for people to start blogging and large corporations increasing their online presence in these spaces those voices have been drowned out by commercial interest large and small.

Economic development is much more than charts and graphs with incomprehensible jargon served up as an explanation to do something. Its examining the quality of life  for people within a community and developing ways in which economic activity can better serve the people. That requires exploring what motivates people in their activity. Why do people forego stability to pursue a vision? Why do institutions withhold supporting individuals or withdraw support from institutions that would increase the capacity of a community to live in a stable and sustainable way? The are a vast number of subjects I find interesting and I think others would be at curious about if exposed to in an accessible way. This is the goal of The Econ Dev.