The Creative Industries are an Economic Boon

SilenceBreakers director, Jane Watkinson, has already discussed the importance of a “triple bottom line” (3BL) approach to accounting, and how that adheres to alternative methods of measuring progress – social and environmental achievements, not just profits posted even after “disaster capitalism.” She also quotes Noam Chomsky, as I will here.

But let’s for a moment focus on the traditional – albeit flawed – approach to accounting and bottom line scrutiny.

Instead of social or environmental advances as part of the measurement of progress, governments prefer to talk about what services enjoy financial returns. With that in mind, many public services are cut, because what those offer to society are not valued in this outdated indicator method, even though, as Chomsky states in the film The Corporation:

“Public institutions have many side benefits. For one thing they may purposely run at a loss. They’re not out for profit. They may purposely run at a loss because of the side benefits. So, for example if a public steel industry runs at a loss it’s providing cheap steel to other industries, maybe that’s a good thing. Public institutions can have a counter cyclic property. So that means that they can maintain employment in periods of recession, which increases demand, which helps you get out of a recession. A private company can’t do that in a recession – you throw the workforce out, because that’s the way you make money.”

The way they make money is, naturally, all that matters for most private companies, in opposition to this approach from the public sector (social enterprises are an alternative to these). What matters, more often than not, is just how great the gap between expenditure and income is. Okay. Let’s examine that.

Interestingly, even by this rationale, the creative industries are an incredible boon. I’ve spoken before on behalf of SilenceBreakers about my attendance at the Creative Clusters event a few years ago where Robert Marijnissen of Amsterdam’s city cultural strategy in the Netherlands suggested that if you have a strong creative culture in communities, the financial rewards naturally follow. At the same event, Edna dos Santos-Duisenberg from UNCTAD declared that the “creative industries are a dynamic new sector in trade…creative economy is conducive to social inclusion, job creation, human development, and ends marginalization (in addition to) reconciling economic objectives with social objectives.” Again, even if the social benefits are not a priority, their advance surely can be considered a bonus – because, as Robert Marijnissen said, “you get all that other stuff for free.”

Specifically, here in SilenceBreakers’ home country of the UK, the arts cost around £3m yet employ almost two million people and bring in £16.6bn through exports – between 1997 and 2006, the arts grew more than any other sector. They also have a massive influence on the tourism trade.

The creative industries budgets, however, are being cut. Arts are being cut. This, though, is in direct opposition to the principle of massive financial returns through minimal investment – as we spend around a massive £400m on the arms industries that employ just 90,000 people. It doesn’t make sense. Sir Christopher Frayling described the last several years as a “golden age” for the arts; now, it seems we are being taken back to the 1980s, where Margaret Thatcher’s government also cut arts funds. It is, potentially, a missed opportunity.

The added bonus – social enrichment and empowerment – of investment in creative industries should only add to the value of what is essentially a ready-made stimulus package. While £400m is spent on arms with insignificant returns and often-deleterious social effects, the £3m that the creative industries cost us bring massive rewards. The social returns are added value; they stimulate thought, discussion and debate.

Why, then, are these things being treated like a threat when they should be valued? You may want to be creative in your own conclusions.

3BL 4 Life,

Jay Baker, Founder

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