Quote:
Originally Posted by JMKeynes
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This is sort of how the world works. And it’s not unique to tech, it’s true of sectors like finance and medical research as well. Any knowledge based industry relies on virtuous cycles of more and more talent being in one place.
The idea that location no longer matters because of communications technology, etc is a complete myth. It’s just based on where people
want to live, not natural resources, navigable rivers, etc as it might have been in the industrial economy.
This actually leads to more concentration of economic prosperity rather than less. Natural resources are scattered all over the place, and they aren’t necessarily in the places where people would choose to live for reasons other than their jobs, etc. The more it becomes just a matter of a mobile work force of more highly-educated and highly-compensated individuals deciding where they want to be, the fewer places will be successful.
London is a classic example. Other places in England once thrived because of mills or ports or whatever. But now London is the biggest city, the capital, the financial centre, the media centre, the technology centre, with the best connectivity to the rest of the world, the best restaurants and culture, the most wealth, and actually (bearing in mind this is all relative) the best weather in the UK. For the UK it’s basically NYC, DC, SF, LA, Boston, Houston and Miami all rolled into one.
The US is much too large for the same dynamic to ever exist, but you’ll still see the “cream” of society and the economy concentrating itself more and more, as other places die. Even regionally, Chicago has been sucking the life force from other Midwestern cities for decades.
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