Online thread pretty much sums up bloggers’ entire personal history! Thanks Internet!

It all started with a short article in Marketing Magazine about “Kids choosing experience over big homes”, relaying the predictions of economist and social scientist Richard Florida at the conclusion of the 2nd annual Marketing Week.

Florida’s theory of the “Creative Class” identifies a growing section of society that favours “an economic shift towards technology, research and development, and the internet (and related fields) building within the overall postwar economies of many countries.” Source: Wikipedia. He further claims that members of this class are the most significant economic factor in the current economic climate.

Basically, instead of the pursuit of a wealth-based economy that idealizes the acquisition of money and possessions, the Creative Class is a meritocracy that values rich experiences and diverse culture and having access to “the three 'T's of Talent (have a highly talented/educated/skilled population), Tolerance (have a diverse community, which has a 'live and let live' ethos), and Technology (have the technological infrastructure necessary to fuel an entrepreneurial culture).” Source: Wikipedia

Okay, interesting theory but is it revelatory? From where I’m sitting, it is. According to Florida, the types of people most likely to be among the creative class are: scientists, engineers, new media artists, designers and educators. As in, teachers. My parents are retired teachers. Eureka! I was raised by the creative class and I never knew it. Call National Geographic!

For years I’ve struggled to understand my own family and upbringing. We weren’t rich or poor, falling somewhere in the “middle”. We didn’t have the biggest house on the block, the most expensive cars or the most elaborate vacations, but neither did we have the smallest, the least or the simplest. My parents wouldn’t buy us designer duds, but disdained bargain stores. Skiing was an acceptable vacation option; camping or going to a beach resort was not. Wine drinking and microbrews were encouraged (after 19); mixed drinks and coolers: so low-brow. The standard to which I was held was inviolate but ambiguous.

It was a confusing time for me – I tried and failed to understand the value system in which I was raised. I was a teenager in the 80’s – the decade of excess. We were taught that the Russians were bad, the bigger your hair and shoulder pads and hair were the better and that if you weren’t a millionaire by the time you were thirty, you had failed yourself and your parents.

But in terms of familial approval, it wasn’t that they wanted me to be tremendously rich (although I suspect that they wouldn’t have objected), it was something more elusive, something that I have failed to identify until I read about Richard Florida and his theory of Creative Class. It’s always been about being an active participant in “worthy” pursuits. It’s behaving and engaging in activities that adhere to a checklist of appropriateness and deserving-ness. If you deviate from this checklist, you are outré and a misfit. Same old game, really, just a little more PC.

Because, make no mistake: the creative class, although a meritocracy, is still a class system. I am no more thrilled about being dissed for my plebeian love of trashy novels and Texas hold-em than I would be for being disdained for being an SUV-driving shopoholic. I also can’t imagine it makes a difference in the world to the family who uses the food bank that they are considered unworthy they don’t spend a lot of time at the art gallery rather than because they don’t live in a McMansion. They’re still eating Kraft Dinner every other meal and trying to make ends meet. It’s still elitism, disguised as “good intentions” and “good taste”. It’s a form of cultural discrimination if you can’t or choose not to fit in.

What really sucks is that it’s even harder to quantify and justify your exclusion, involuntary or not, than it was during the wealth-worshipping days. I can muster a good excuse for not being a dirty, dirty capitalist: I’m not a dirtbag. But for this new creative class…I should WANT to be part of it, shouldn’t I? I should WANT to be sophisticated, culturally-conscious and tolerant. Who can argue with that?

So what if I think yoga is a stupid waste of time? So what if I can’t afford to vacation in Tuscany? So what if I live in an apartment complex that doesn’t recycle? Does that make me a monster?

According to the Creative Class theory: Yes! Yes, it does.

Are you a member of the Creative Class? Take my quiz!

Yes: university educated, working for not-for-profit or in new technology
No: self-made businessperson, working for him/herself
Oh-hells-no: high-school education/community college, working in a trade

Yes: your idea of a great vacation is a wine-tasting tour of Italy
No: Las Vegas. Unless it’s done ironically or as part of a stag
Oh-hells-no: A shopping blitz at the Mall of Americas

Yes: A restored Victorian home in gentrified “downscale” neighbourhood
No: A monster home in the suburbs
Oh-hells-no: A high-rise rental apartment or Anywhere In Scarborough

Yes: A hybrid or an LSM Scooter
No: A sports car or an SUV
Oh-hells-no: 1994 Chevy Lumina with a superfluous spoiler! (this is probably just me)

Yes: a thoughtful documentary about environmental issues and then an dinner at a local restaurant (featuring either ethnic or organic food)
No: a sci-fi blockbuster movie and then dinner at the Keg
Oh-hells-no: a street dog and a Coke Slurpee!

My score: 2 x yes-es, 1 x half-yes/half-oh-hells-no (I junked the Lumina and now drive a scooter), 2 x oh-hells-no’s.