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CA is one of the most regulated, least risky places, on Earth and yet has led the way in innovation in multiple industries for decades. You are mixing cause an

by btilly 7y ago

CA is one of the most regulated, least risky places, on Earth and yet has led the way in innovation in multiple industries for decades. You are mixing cause and effect. CA started off as an unregulated wild west. It became a center for innovation, and then added regulations. But retained critical innovation mass as it went. However the regulations came after. You can verify this by looking at industries. Gold mining, no regulations except what the miners invented back in 1849. (And we are still dealing with the weird way of regulating water rights that they came up with.) Shipping because some idiots built a railroad across the country, and therefore Los Angeles/Long Beach was the cheapest way to trade with Asia. Hollywood moved here because lots of good weather, open spaces, and no regulations. Agriculture moved here because of the same plus some ambitious water projects. (Plus available migrant labor that nobody enforced wage laws for.) Aerospace moved here for the same. Silicon Valley started for a different set of reasons (see Steve Blank's Secret History of Silicon Valley) but I guarantee you that there weren't a lot of regulations when that got going in the 1950s. In all cases regulation came later, often much later. And the result is that many industries that got going in California, such as the manufacture of semiconductors at scale, wound up moving elsewhere. But so far, at least, we've been lucky enough to dream up new ones. :-)

gamblor956 7y ago
In all cases regulation came later, often much later. And the result is that many industries that got going in California, such as the manufacture of semiconductors at scale, wound up moving elsewhere. But so far, at least, we've been lucky enough to dream up new ones. :-) This is empirically false. California's fastest growth for technology (i.e., Silicon Valley post-chip manufacturing), entertainment (i.e., films, video games, and music), and agriculture all took place after the introduction of regulations. Silicon Valley flourished because regulations protected workers' rights. Entertainment flourished because local governments passed laws incentivizing film production and protecting workers' rights. Agriculture flourished because water-use regulations protected agricultural uses over residential/commercial usage. In all cases, yes--the industry came first. But these industries didn't flourish until after the regulations came. And the crazy thing is that despite all the regulation, CA's industries are still flourishing. It turns out that a company that can survive the costs of CA regulation can survive pretty much anything; a company that can't simply doesn't have a viable business model.

by btilly 7y ago

gamblor956 7y ago

In all cases regulation came later, often much later. And the result is that many industries that got going in California, such as the manufacture of semiconductors at scale, wound up moving elsewhere. But so far, at least, we've been lucky enough to dream up new ones. :-) This is empirically false. California's fastest growth for technology (i.e., Silicon Valley post-chip manufacturing), entertainment (i.e., films, video games, and music), and agriculture all took place after the introduction of regulations. Silicon Valley flourished because regulations protected workers' rights. Entertainment flourished because local governments passed laws incentivizing film production and protecting workers' rights. Agriculture flourished because water-use regulations protected agricultural uses over residential/commercial usage. In all cases, yes--the industry came first. But these industries didn't flourish until after the regulations came. And the crazy thing is that despite all the regulation, CA's industries are still flourishing. It turns out that a company that can survive the costs of CA regulation can survive pretty much anything; a company that can't simply doesn't have a viable business model.