Comment of the Day: Tim McDermott: Regional Policy and Distributional Policy in a World Where People Want to Ignore the Value and Contribution of Knowledge- and Network-Based Increasing Returns: "Years and years ago I heard an interview with a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who taught the founders of Lycos...
...the first search engine on the nascent internet. He joined other Pittsburghers to try to use Lycos to anchor a tech-driven revival of the city. They worked hard on this project, and were making some progress. The professor was on sabbatical in Boston when he read that Lycos was moving to Boston, so he called the Lycos CEO and asked him Why.
The answer was that it took Lycos 18 months to hire a skilled graphic designer in Pittsburgh.
One of the things that is holding back red states is that they are red states. They are hostile to women, LGBTQ+, immigrants, non-whites, and non-Christians. A sizable chunk of tech talent comes in these flavors. With current Republican social policies, I have trouble seeing a tech hub growing in the red part of the country.
