Lukas Diaz is Wrong About the Economy

Lukas Diaz tees off on Dave Cieslewicz in a post called "Citizen Dave is Wrong About the Economy". Cieslewicz was critical of the economic development group Thrive in one of his recent blog posts.

Diaz begins by attempting to discredit Madison's former mayor by citing some development failures of his administration and noting that Epic's move to Verona was squarely at odds with Cieslewicz's Richard Florida-inspired views. The crux here is Cieslewicz's disagreement with the idea that Madison and Janesville are optimal Thrive partners for economic development:

So why are Madison and Janesville both part of the same “region” as defined by the private-public economic development entity called Thrive? There is simply no good reason for it, and the wrong definition of the region is hurting Madison and Dane County, while it isn’t doing much for the other seven included counties either. Thrive is a fine idea, and a good organization led and staffed by bright people, but it’s fatally flawed by its size.

After attempting to argue that Cieslewicz is not the most knowledgeable person to be commenting on the issue, Diaz says:

The difference between Madison and Janesville are much smaller than the difference between Madison and the whole world. We are in a global economy, regional cooperation is a good thing. So Thrive, keep doing what you’re doing.

The first sentence hangs on how you define "difference". Sure, Madison and Janesville are geographically close to one another, are bound by a common language, et al, but these are not the things Cieslewicz was talking about because they aren't that important when it comes to Madison deciding where to pin its economic future. Yes, Madison has fewer "differences" when compared to Janesville than Shanghai, but so what?

Take a look at the second sentence. What can Janesville contribute to a partnership with Madison that will give everyone a leg up in competing in a global economy? Parker Pen and GM are gone and I'd bet that most of the suppliers to these industries are also gone. I don't have statistics other than an unemployment rate of around 9% to determine what Janesville would bring to a marriage; instead all I have are anecdotes. My mother goes to visit family there and has concluded that it's a city on life support. A friend has a sibling who works at a Rock County job center and this person has nothing but horror stories. So, while the plural of anecdote is not data, I am sticking with my story until someone comes up with some data that show how Janesville would be a good partner for Madison in a global economy.

If Janesville has something to add to our economic future, great. We here in Madison should be ready to partner with anyone. But in terms of focusing efforts, Madison needs more of this, an energy research consortium linking facilities and researchers in Milwaukee and Madison together. The southeast corner of Wisconsin accounts for about a third of the state's economic output with Milwaukee being the northern frontier of an economic mega-region with Chicago, a global city, at its center. That's where Madison should be seeking partnerships.