6 ms·

A highly competent government in America has been a massive contributor to our success. The conservative opposition with shrinking government and making it inef

A highly competent government in America has been a massive contributor to our success. The conservative opposition with shrinking government and making it ineffective is profound error that will make it harder to start and grow businesses, invest in innovation and compete on the world stage. We should be working to have the best government in the world not the smallest.

toephu2 2y ago
> A highly competent government in America has been a massive contributor to our success. I doubt this. Do you really think the government is the reason Silicon Valley has been so successful? Sure the government created the internet, but after that many tech companies flourished in Silicon Valley with very little regulation. I think that's why America has been so successful. If you look at anything the government gets its hands in, costs sky rocket (education, healthcare, etc).
- bdcravens 2y ago
  Many of those SV success stories received funding from VC firms and eventually IPO'ed, systems that are SEC-regulated.
  - filoeleven 2y ago
    Not to mention NSF, DARPA, and other grants from federal agencies. That’s how we got Google.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  The whole point is a highly competent government is one the does have an appropriate level of regulation. Regulation like disallowing non-competes. I think that there is plenty of good evidence that the whole reason Silicon Valley is in California is their long (and historically unusual stance among US states) history of disallowing non-competes. This is why all this DOGE shit is so frustrating to a lot of people. I don't disagree that there is government waste, or that there are regulations that should be scrapped. But people don't realize how much success in this country is due to having largely fair and functioning institutions. That's all getting chucked out the window now.
- edmundsauto 2y ago
  SV has very deep military origins... Steve Blank has some great posts on this... and modern SV has been the beneficiary of a ton of Superfund money to keep big areas livable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cal...
- digitaltrees 2y ago
  Yes, why is it called Silicon Valley? Are you aware it’s because the federal government set up a nasa program in the Bay Area that concentrated engineering talent and kick started the first set of companies? Are you aware government contracts provided much of the initial demand that got those companies revenue? Are you aware of the massive public investment to establish the internet? Or the GPS network? I could go on and on. The government pays for the basic research and infrastructure that isn’t commercially viable, companies then take up the mantle of commercialization from a significantly derisked reality.
ModernMech 2y ago
This is one thing that has always confounded me about conservatives. America is really number one in a lot of ways. The awful terrible bloated government they complain about has fostered the best university system in the world, the best companies in the world, massive wealth, an invincible military, a dominant position on the world stage, the world's reserve currency... and they want to throw a wrench in the machine that produced those results? Is #1 economy not good enough??
- rozap 2y ago
  This is why the voluntary weakening of America's position in NATO is so wild. The US has so much power over Europe and the whole world through this. Everyone will (for better or worse) do whatever we want. And they even spend tons of money at US defense companies. Just look at Rheinmetall's stock price to see what the market thinks of this. Germany, UK, and France will all re-militarize without the US. If Trump sets in motion a series of events that cause the world to switch to a different reserve currency, a lot of Americans are going to realize how good we had it. American hegemony may not be great for the world, but it sure is great for Americans. There's a meme going around of Xi Jinping just sitting back and letting Trump dismantle the US himself. Except that it's not a joke, it's reality.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    > There's a meme going around of Xi Jinping just sitting back and letting Trump dismantle the US himself. Except that it's not a joke, it's reality. I wonder if the liberals had it wrong: that Trump isn’t beholden to Russia, but to China instead. The goal s to destroy America’s credibility by bullying our allies even more than our supposed non-allies. He wanted to tariff Mexico and Canada at 25% but China only 10%. I see the end of his term with China replacing the USA as the premiere super power, they already are rapidly catching up with key investments in green energy, Eavs, AI, automation, drones, etc…they have things the world wants to buy while we have…bluster, bullying, and nothing else really appealing (buy our manufacturing output that costs 2X and is half as good!).
    - 2y ago
ChrisRR 2y ago
I wouldn't say highly competent. Even at its best the US has such a tribalistic view of politics that has held back so many improvements
- digitaltrees 2y ago
  This isn’t remotely true. Have you been to a country that doesn’t have a competent bureaucracy? There are no roads, no economic data for business to plan. The list goes on and on. The sheer volume of goods and services we each rely on and benefit from working flawlessly in the background without ever realizing is staggering when you stop to think about it. Go travel to a country that doesn’t have the cdc, the federal reserve etc, and tell me how easy it is to do business and build a life.

toephu2 2y ago

> A highly competent government in America has been a massive contributor to our success. I doubt this. Do you really think the government is the reason Silicon Valley has been so successful? Sure the government created the internet, but after that many tech companies flourished in Silicon Valley with very little regulation. I think that's why America has been so successful. If you look at anything the government gets its hands in, costs sky rocket (education, healthcare, etc).

bdcravens 2y ago
Many of those SV success stories received funding from VC firms and eventually IPO'ed, systems that are SEC-regulated.
- filoeleven 2y ago
  Not to mention NSF, DARPA, and other grants from federal agencies. That’s how we got Google.
hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
The whole point is a highly competent government is one the does have an appropriate level of regulation. Regulation like disallowing non-competes. I think that there is plenty of good evidence that the whole reason Silicon Valley is in California is their long (and historically unusual stance among US states) history of disallowing non-competes. This is why all this DOGE shit is so frustrating to a lot of people. I don't disagree that there is government waste, or that there are regulations that should be scrapped. But people don't realize how much success in this country is due to having largely fair and functioning institutions. That's all getting chucked out the window now.
edmundsauto 2y ago
SV has very deep military origins... Steve Blank has some great posts on this... and modern SV has been the beneficiary of a ton of Superfund money to keep big areas livable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cal...
digitaltrees 2y ago
Yes, why is it called Silicon Valley? Are you aware it’s because the federal government set up a nasa program in the Bay Area that concentrated engineering talent and kick started the first set of companies? Are you aware government contracts provided much of the initial demand that got those companies revenue? Are you aware of the massive public investment to establish the internet? Or the GPS network? I could go on and on. The government pays for the basic research and infrastructure that isn’t commercially viable, companies then take up the mantle of commercialization from a significantly derisked reality.

ModernMech 2y ago

This is one thing that has always confounded me about conservatives. America is really number one in a lot of ways. The awful terrible bloated government they complain about has fostered the best university system in the world, the best companies in the world, massive wealth, an invincible military, a dominant position on the world stage, the world's reserve currency... and they want to throw a wrench in the machine that produced those results? Is #1 economy not good enough??

rozap 2y ago
This is why the voluntary weakening of America's position in NATO is so wild. The US has so much power over Europe and the whole world through this. Everyone will (for better or worse) do whatever we want. And they even spend tons of money at US defense companies. Just look at Rheinmetall's stock price to see what the market thinks of this. Germany, UK, and France will all re-militarize without the US. If Trump sets in motion a series of events that cause the world to switch to a different reserve currency, a lot of Americans are going to realize how good we had it. American hegemony may not be great for the world, but it sure is great for Americans. There's a meme going around of Xi Jinping just sitting back and letting Trump dismantle the US himself. Except that it's not a joke, it's reality.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  > There's a meme going around of Xi Jinping just sitting back and letting Trump dismantle the US himself. Except that it's not a joke, it's reality. I wonder if the liberals had it wrong: that Trump isn’t beholden to Russia, but to China instead. The goal s to destroy America’s credibility by bullying our allies even more than our supposed non-allies. He wanted to tariff Mexico and Canada at 25% but China only 10%. I see the end of his term with China replacing the USA as the premiere super power, they already are rapidly catching up with key investments in green energy, Eavs, AI, automation, drones, etc…they have things the world wants to buy while we have…bluster, bullying, and nothing else really appealing (buy our manufacturing output that costs 2X and is half as good!).
  - 2y ago

ChrisRR 2y ago

I wouldn't say highly competent. Even at its best the US has such a tribalistic view of politics that has held back so many improvements

digitaltrees 2y ago
This isn’t remotely true. Have you been to a country that doesn’t have a competent bureaucracy? There are no roads, no economic data for business to plan. The list goes on and on. The sheer volume of goods and services we each rely on and benefit from working flawlessly in the background without ever realizing is staggering when you stop to think about it. Go travel to a country that doesn’t have the cdc, the federal reserve etc, and tell me how easy it is to do business and build a life.