02-09-2017, 03:31 AM
(02-08-2017, 08:04 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(02-07-2017, 03:40 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:Would America lose the bulk of its value add and the bulk of its contributions to the national Treasury? I don't think so. I think the bulk of it would pack up and move to the American states where it doesn't have to deal with so-called liberal shit. Anyway, Trump has my permission to push the so-called liberals to the brink of disaster.(02-04-2017, 11:40 PM)gabrielle Wrote: Since you guys ignored me earlier, I am forced to repeat myself in a simpler and more direct fashion.
Why is there a 10+ page thread devoted to a few broken windows and fires at Berkeley yet no mention of what happened a week ago, when A TRUMP SUPPORTER MURDERED PEOPLE just for being Muslim?
Because it's more fun to make fun of us Californians.
In spite of our extreme value add and extreme contributions to the national Treasury, we have become everyone's favorite whipping children. Granted having our excess share of mouthy gadflies some of whom are either idiots or are in The Bubble, does create a target rich environment, meanwhile the concentration of media and "sexy" tech firms may incite envy leading to wrath.
Much of the income in America is now intellectual property. Think of the most expensive appliance in your house, and divide its value (either replacement cost or initial cost) by its lifetime. That's most likely your refrigerator. Now compare that to the amount that you spend on recorded music and videos, books, magazines, ant tickets to theaters and concerts. Where do you spend more of your money? Now contemplate how much money is spent on computer software just in business.
OK, I forgot your car. I am reminded of what Lee Iacocca said of high technology -- much of the most expensive high technology goes into vehicles and energy extraction.
Maybe the engineers are slightly conservative -- but most of the other creative people are liberals. Creative activities attract liberals because people who think outside the box generally aren't authoritarian right-wingers. OK, Hitler (a fascist) and Churchill (an arch-conservative) were both painters... and Churchill seems to have been good enough that [snark]if he hadn't wasted his talent on saving Western Christian Civilization from a not-so-great artist he might have made a good living and be quite famous for his art[/snark].
But all in all, people who have creative talent are generally not drawn to money-grubbing finance or to machine-paced work -- and they tend to be liberals. Even with the engineers, many are members of vulnerable ethnic and religious groups...
If you want to lose much of America's GNP, then chase off the creative people. Creative people are far more mobile, and they have no value to take with them but their creativity. But what value! Think of how great German cinema was around 1930; it rivaled American cinema. But much of that talent was liberal or Jewish and it had to leave for more tolerant places -- like Hollywood. Much of the talent behind the Golden Age of Hollywood had fled Hitler.
...Coastal California is a paradise for scenery, climate, and culture, and one pays a high price for living there. But who would want to live in rural central Illinois unless one is very sentimental or owns a lucrative farm? Winters are cold and bleak, and summers are oppressively hot and humid; it is part of Tornado Alley. For someone passing through by car, the scenery is best appreciated at night because of the topography (seemingly-endless, featureless flatland). Culture? Go to Chicago or perhaps St. Louis.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
