What Worker Wouldn’t Move to Scandinavia in America?

At some point in the next year or so, a city is going to be announced as the winner of the Amazon HQ2 sweepstakes. That city will pay a steep price for that victory, and, whatever its contributions are, they will be substantial, they will be hard to track down, and the costs will be spread over decades. But worst of all, that victorious city will be spending money chasing an economic development strategy that is outdated at birth. The winner will, in effect, be the toast of America circa 1995.

Chasing corporate headquarters and throwing money at them, reflects a great-man theory of economic development that reflects deep civic insecurity: only a corporation can save a city from its struggles. But corporations aren’t the civic heavyweights they used to be. For starters, employee loyalty has plummeted. The percentage of workers engaged in "alternative work arrangements" (freelancers, contractors, on-call workers and temp agency workers) grew from 10 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2015. And job growth in that sector far outpaces growth in salaried jobs. Tech companies are leading the charge: For example, about half of Google’s employees aren’t salaried.