> Intel would never be possible in a world with 1mm people; their fab centers are spectacularly expensive fixed costs. I think that's an interesting point that

> Intel would never be possible in a world with 1mm people; their fab centers are spectacularly expensive fixed costs. I think that's an interesting point that's the continuation of OP's line of thinking + Ford's original thinking. Facebook/etc (to return to the pure-digital companies) would not be possible in a world without X people with disposable income. It's tough to make money on people who can't afford things. How's MySpace doing vs Facebook? Which imho is a rebuttal the opinion that these kinds of "pure tech" jobs do scale -- true, but only in relation to the number of other jobs people are already earning income from. You can't squeeze blood (revenue) from an (unemployed) stone.