We have the natural experiment of California, which as I recall, if it were a country, would have the world's sixth or seventh largest economy. Compare what's

We have the natural experiment of California, which as I recall, if it were a country, would have the world's sixth or seventh largest economy. Compare what's happened to the Boston metro area with Silicon Valley. Boston matches the Bay Area in top universities, and if you go back to the 1980s, had even more of the computer industry. But the Valley has outpaced it ever since, and by now has much greater economic vitality.