Government is the greatest asset and liability to any business. On one hand, it took sweet, juicy government grants and contracts to lay the economic and knowl

Government is the greatest asset and liability to any business. On one hand, it took sweet, juicy government grants and contracts to lay the economic and knowledge foundation that was needed for Austin to grow into a tech hub. On the other hand - and this is a particularly American tendency - people want a perfect society and a free society. What they often get is neither, and only sometimes both. There is still plenty for government to do. No private actor has the will or power to solve the traffic problem alone. Condofication and breakneck sprawl need government intervention or else things will keep going the way they are: worse. And then you've got the perpetual rejections of mass transit plans and of course Prop 1. But sadly I think you're most right about the Californication of politics, which will only cement the old guard against the newcomers, encourage bullying over discussion, and make it ever harder to fix the problems that grow by the day.