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>Why Canada Has No Big Tech Companies

Here's an explanation:

Because Canada prefers many more smaller companies, that actually employ people, instead of few billion dollar tech darlings with a sub par personel and even less taxes paid?

How about: why California is bankrupt, as a state, and with large swaths of the population in utter poverty, despite having the worlds largest tech companies?



California employees pay state income and sales taxes. If you broke up a large company employing 10,000 Californians into 100 small companies employing 100 Californians each, not much would change.

I refer you to historical growth of California revenues http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeting/budget_faqs/information/docu... It's boom-driven, so you get revenue shortfalls during bust years, but on the aggregate the revenues are growing - the $97 billion of revenues in 2013-2014 budget years is still higher than 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.

Perhaps if your revenue is consistently growing, and you still cannot run a balanced budget, the problem might be on the spending side?


Yeah, the Liberal types like their social programs, and the Conservative types like their lower taxes, and no one has actually tried to reconcile those two opposing pulls.

I don't know why that obvious contradiction was never tackled. I would like to think it's because the Hollywood execs of SoCal and the ex-hippie/Silicon Valley combo of NorCal are so geographically far apart that they don't talk, but that's too simplistic, I'm sure.


Both Hollywood and Silicon Valley have what the economists call Cumulative Advantage. IOW, network effects with critical mass make them "the" destination for a people with a certain dream.


I don't think social programs are all that great. Parks are slated for closure, public schools as an aggregate are below average, and public higher ed is getting just a tiny bit expensive http://www.thenation.com/blog/166898/harvard-now-cheaper-san...

I've heard prisons and state employee benefits are superb, but have had no chance to verify either claim.




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