Guy Kawasaki’s Ten Questions with Dr. Joseph Chamie, Demographer and it’s follow up made for an engaging albeit brief read. I was especially drawn to it because of my minor in Sociology with a concentration in Economics and Dr. Chamie offers some well thought out “napkin notes” about the trends we will be facing in terms of globalization and how migration, urbanization, and in a broader sense domestic politics will impact the individual and collective fortunes of nation states.

For me it was a refreshing read as I usually dwell on doom and gloom being very much a pessimist and a believer that if you give a person enough rope they will inevitably try to string someone up followed by themselves. File me under the school of thought that humankind is a greedy brutish lot. Dr. Chamie paints a picture of movement on a regional as well as global scale that will carry with it the usual disruptions but at least from his depiction I, as an individual, might just be able to weather it.

While he is discussing trends on a massive scale it did get me thinking about when I wind down my fiction reading project that the next task I wanted to undertake was an understanding with regards to the interplay between politics, geography, demographics, and migration. Last year I began researching the role of corporations play in sustaining or undermining local economic enclaves. The Blue Back Square project in West Hartford and Evergreen Terrace in South Windsor prompted me to consider how many of these development projects are often a Faustian deal where the town is lead to believe that a windfall in tax revenue will occur and that it will possess a near infinite viability. When in fact these developments lead to capital flight as the majority of each dollar spent leaves the town and or region.

Could this be the same bargain that some members of the European Union will experience? Dr. Chamie writes, “European Union, for example, national boundaries have been opened for free movement and trade with a common market for its members.” More importantly, as he discusses migratory patterns to come, what is the impact of the communities that have forsaken locally based economic endeavors for multinational ones? Corporations follow the smell of money and if your community is experiencing zero or negative growth it will be the first on the list for vacating. Just look to the exodus in the Great Plains states.

Reading Kawasaki’s interview invigorated me to pull out my reading list and take a look as to what I have down so far. Starting off are Thomas Sowell’s Migrations and Culture and Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition both of which I read in undergrad but did not get the time to truly digest. Arendt’s work was read alongside works of Saul Alinsky which I found to be a nice pairing of thought and action. Following up are three books that I have read positive press on but have not gotten my hands on: William Bonner and Addison Wiggin’s Empire of Debt, L. Hunter Lovins, Amory Lovins, and Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck’s Suburban Nation. Providing the structure for this slightly disparate list would be Jane Jacob’s The Economy of Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. To fill in the cracks, I’ve spent the better part of the year gathering white papers and journal articles on planning and zoning, local political communication and activism, and analysis of regional economic trends. Heavy reading list but I’m sure I can spin it into something productive here or elsewhere.

If only I were born a trust fund baby, I would spend my life in academia as I am full of questions that want for answers.