Detroit is the birthplace of Techno and Techno artists have continued to emerge from Detroit even as it's status as a city has declined. Because of this the city is idealized among Techno fans across Europe. My guess is some of this development is trying to target this European base.
The results of Seattle area companies beg to differ. I live in Seattle and I find that if I walk outdoors during the day at least once per day, I'm fine.
Tech companies can only produce what their employees output. If people were so miserable in Seattle there's no way that any company based there would thrive enough to be a top company in the world.
Since many people on HN live in California. The single greatest thing you can do if you live in be an advocate for building more housing in California, especially in locations with public transportation. California has low heating and cooling costs, and existing public transportation networks that can be extended.
I wonder how much the difference in residential heating/cooling really matters.
For example, I looked at natural gas consumption, in Texas industrial use is off the charts, residential is reasonably in line with California (on a per capita basis).
Of course that is only enough to say that it is necessary to take a closer look, by the time everything is added up it could well be that living in California is substantially better.
The name for this is crony capitalism. Policy that benefits businesses instead of policy that benefits markets. Luigi Zingales's book "A Capitalism for the People" is a good read on the subject.
Nah, there are lots of ways to get that unfair advantage. Network effects are a big one. Facebook is only facebook because everybody is on it. MS Office is only MS Office because everybody has it.
Are they superior products? Meh.
Would you particularly miss them if they were destroyed? Unlikely. Somebody just as good would come along by and by, or one of the other ones would rise to replace them.
Are you gonna pay for them anyways? Bet your ass you will.
An examination of all current and historical implementations of capitalism quickly leads to the conclusion that all capitalism eventually becomes "crony capitalism", and playing the "no true scotsman" game with regards to capitalism does not demonstrate anything meaningful.
That is patently ridiculous. The vast majority of firms that you give your dollars too have direct competitors. They may not prefer to have competitors, but neither do you when applying for jobs or bidding on a house, that is pretty basic human nature.
The lack of on-street parking was something I noticed visiting Japan. Streets can be much smaller when they don't have 20-24 feet of parking. In the US, a massive percentage of our most valuable land goes to subsidized vehicle storage. It's insane.
I really love using Car2Go in Brooklyn. I transit/Bike/Walk 95% of the time, but it's great to have a one-way option when I take a trip that doesn't line up well transit lines.
