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The End of California? Dream On
- mynameishere 17y agomicrochips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist, iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success So much bullshit, any intelligent person will have stopped reading immediately. TIME seals its status as the worst newsweekly. microchips From wiki: The idea of an integrated circuit was conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer (1909-2002), who published it at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 1952.[1] He gave many symposia publicly to propagate his ideas. freeways Hitler. blue jeans Strauss came from California, blue Jeans did not. Again, see wiki. tax revolts Fuck you. The Pennsylvania Whisky rebellion is BY FAR the most prominent tax revolt in American history, and it is 1000s of years too late to be considered the inventor of the phenom. extreme sports Rome. energy efficiency Watt. health clubs Rome. Google searches Altavista essentially the same, CMU.or Massachusetts, I forget. Craigslist Charging zero for an established service is not an innovation. iPhones Finland. Hollywood vision of success Marx.
- dimitar 17y ago"That gave us" doesn't always mean "that invented".
- holygoat 17y agoI think his point still stands: this piece is full of shit. I'm surprised not to see "Sponsored by California Corp." at the bottom.
- mynameishere 17y agoWhat does it mean then? One example: Energy Efficiency. I draw attention to this because: Energy efficiency has ALWAYS been a concern of industry. And James Watt has done more for industrial efficiency than the entire state of CA will ever do. Sorry, but that's a fact. Even if you discount the low-hanging fruit of efficient steam-engines, then companies like Toyota are still at the forefront, not California. I am simply pointing out bullshit where I see bullshit. And Freeways? Really, freeways? EVERYBODY, and even the ignorant part of American society knows that the US freeways were years behind Germany. I'm just pointing out gross stupidity. Nothing else.
- gfodor 17y agoThanks for getting me 5 minutes of extra sleep tonight!
- eru 17y ago> freeways > Hitler. I doubt that. While Hitler had a lot of Autobahnen built, the first were from the Weimar Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#History).
- wooster 17y agoThe Lincoln Highway was built to coincide with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, and was the inspiration for the Interstate Highway System. Modern, riveted, blue jeans were invented in California. Altavista was invented at Digital Equipment Corporation's Western Research Laboratory, in Palo Alto, CA. iPhones were invented in California. Credit for mobile phones is spread throughout much more than Finland, with Motorola and AT&T playing significant roles. Marx is just a non-sequitur, as far as I can tell. Which is all beside the point, as that sentence is literary device meant to evoke a sense of place.
- Kaizyn 17y agoAs a life-long resident of California, I should like to say that if this is where the rest of the country is headed, then the Republic is doomed. Adopting the policies of California will bankrupt any other state in the country as it has this one. If this be the future, then we as a nation are headed straight off a cliff.
- joecode 17y agoWell, Silicon Valley is in good shape anyway. It still produces things, unlike most of the rest of the country. Hollywood is likely to keep ticking, too, and I don't see the wine country having much trouble either. Meanwhile, the state is a pretty damn good place to grow tasty, nutritious fruits and vegetables. As a California resident, all this doom and gloom has struck me as utter nonsense. California has especially noticeable problems because it is such a huge and dynamic economy. So perhaps it reacts to U.S./World economic conditions in an especially intense manner. But this is something like a healthy immune reaction in my opinion. California will get over it, and it will be stronger in the end. Perhaps I sound too infatuated with California. Well, come here and see for yourself. It almost makes me feel patriotic---for California, that is.
- shpxnvz 17y agoWell, come here and see for yourself. I did, for a few years, and it appeared even crazier up close. Living there only made the insanity of the "creative" public spending all the more obvious to me, but then I don't claim to be an expert. However, I am close to a Central Coast native who happens to have a career in California government finance - when she says the county and state finances are completely screwed and incompetently handled, I give that opinion a little weight.
- splat 17y agoI agree with you that the state of California is, all things considered, not doing too badly, and it looks as though it will be doing better in the near future. I think that the original commenter was referring to the government of the state of California, which is in serious fiscal trouble. And it looks as though the state government's problems are going to be exacerbated in the future by the tendency of the state legislature for the last several years to "solve" any fiscal problems with temporary fixes and postpone real solutions. The state itself certainly still has a very bright future, but unless the legislature makes some drastic changes in the near future, the state government's future looks very troubled. "California" and "the government of California" are two very different things, and it's important not to conflate the two as often happens in these "California is going down the shitter" debates.
- chrischen 17y agoAnywhere's probably better than Detroit. Having never visited California in my life (closest I've come was living in Texas), I really want to see how great it is. So please, Paul Graham, if you are reading this, please at least give me an interview so I can fly there for free.
- csbrooks 17y agoI'm not sure Texas counts as getting close to California... (I've lived in both, currently in Austin.)
- chrischen 17y agoWell Michigan vs Texas, which one is closer to california? Texas is hot like California, and it's economy is better than michigan's. I said it's the closest I've been, and I also didn't mean physically either.