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Republican state leaders sure do talk a lot about being pro-business. It is interesting that California and Washington headquarter all four of the world’s trill

Republican state leaders sure do talk a lot about being pro-business. It is interesting that California and Washington headquarter all four of the world’s trillion dollar public companies, plus a boatload of $100B+ companies, and vibrant startup centers. Businesses care about things other than low taxes. Hiring well educated and talented people is certainly top of the list. States that want to grow their economies should focus on making attracting/maintaining/developing those types of people. That means focusing on livability (livability != low cost of living).

baron816 6y ago
Adding on here, I think you can make a pretty good argument that California does capitalism better than anyone else in the world. Just within a few miles of each other, you have Apple, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Nvidia, Adobe, PayPal, Netflix, Intel, Oracle, and Salesforce. All worth >$150B.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  That those business are concentrated in such a small area would seem to suggest it's not because of California, but in spite of it. Concentration begets concentration, so when you have a preexisting concentration of tech companies, that concentration will continue almost regardless of the local or statewide political environment.
  - bamboozled 6y ago
    Even still, why aren't said companies concentrated in other states ? It kind of makes sense they're geographically pretty close? If you were going to start a tech company in 2010, why wouldn't you build near other campuses ? Hiring etc would be so much easier. You'd be at a disadvantage to be in another part of California?
- thekyle 6y ago
  Seems like your arguing that Silicon Valley does capitalism better then anywhere else in the world. If it were a California thing then you would expect similar results in more than one city within the state.
  - bawolff 6y ago
    Los Angelas has a tremendous concentration of the film industry, so its not just one city.
s5300 6y ago
...They know this. They aren't stupid (a non-negligible portion at least) The people they can easily pander to don't, for various reasons. Public education has been widely dismantled, especially in areas hit by industrial and white flight. Hookworm/malnutrition/lead poisoning are all also legitimately a hell of a fuckin drug. The biggest charade of the past 50 or so years has also been convincing a decent portion of the U.S. that California is some democratic/liberal orgy of a state. It's not. California has historically had and still does have a large republican presence. Sheer ignorance along with cognitive dissonance makes grifting easy as hell.

baron816 6y ago

Adding on here, I think you can make a pretty good argument that California does capitalism better than anyone else in the world. Just within a few miles of each other, you have Apple, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Nvidia, Adobe, PayPal, Netflix, Intel, Oracle, and Salesforce. All worth >$150B.

nitrogen 6y ago
That those business are concentrated in such a small area would seem to suggest it's not because of California, but in spite of it. Concentration begets concentration, so when you have a preexisting concentration of tech companies, that concentration will continue almost regardless of the local or statewide political environment.
- bamboozled 6y ago
  Even still, why aren't said companies concentrated in other states ? It kind of makes sense they're geographically pretty close? If you were going to start a tech company in 2010, why wouldn't you build near other campuses ? Hiring etc would be so much easier. You'd be at a disadvantage to be in another part of California?
thekyle 6y ago
Seems like your arguing that Silicon Valley does capitalism better then anywhere else in the world. If it were a California thing then you would expect similar results in more than one city within the state.
- bawolff 6y ago
  Los Angelas has a tremendous concentration of the film industry, so its not just one city.

s5300 6y ago

...They know this. They aren't stupid (a non-negligible portion at least) The people they can easily pander to don't, for various reasons. Public education has been widely dismantled, especially in areas hit by industrial and white flight. Hookworm/malnutrition/lead poisoning are all also legitimately a hell of a fuckin drug. The biggest charade of the past 50 or so years has also been convincing a decent portion of the U.S. that California is some democratic/liberal orgy of a state. It's not. California has historically had and still does have a large republican presence. Sheer ignorance along with cognitive dissonance makes grifting easy as hell.