Ex-Google exec has a plan to create a string of tech hubs across rural America | Hacker News Reader

Ex-Google exec has a plan to create a string of tech hubs across rural America

venturebeat.com

24 pointsohjeez9 comments

Well funded startup looking for full stack developer who knows C++, AngularJS, Ansible, and AWS. Competitive comp, 401k, on-site shooting range and 4-wheeler track.

MUST relocate to Dodge City, Kansas.

I know you're being funny but that appeals to me. :-)

Of course, I already have a shooting range and dirt track: my back yard.

Agreed. Id be all over this!

From the other article on the front page, it looks like Australia could and should do the same thing to deflate it's bubble.

Don't forget season passes to the rodeo and stock car races.

I really want this to work out. 18% of the US population is rural, and the rural economy is disintegrating faster and faster. The social costs (not to mention the hardship for those people) will be enormous in a decade or two without a sharp change.

I don't expect it to work, but I wish the project luck.

I want to emphasize that outsourcing to China really played a large role in this. Even if each one of these hubs starts the new Facebook, that will only generate about 17,000 jobs (the amount of people Facebook currently employs) plus of course related industries, but still those jobs are likely to be dispersed across the United States.

Manufacturing has to come back. First it’s good for America for jobs and all that, but there is also a wartime necessity to it. During WWII we produced 70 planes a day. Today I think it would be hard to hit 4 or 5.

Reading about layoffs in the 80s and 90s is awful. I was born in 1990, so I never lived through it really, but it’s like reading about WWI battles. 10,000 there, 2,000 here, 4,000 over there. CEOs demand tax cuts from cities, which they get, and then they still layoff another 7,000. Tech will never ever ever make up for that in any kind of meaningful way. I say this as a Data Center Engineer too.

Not to mention trade deficits that led to the current debt-based economy, where for example the more money the NSA spends the more government debt is appropriated by Congress. It also led to things like the ad bubble that fuels Google etc (which also drives up house prices for example).

And what would you like to see produced that doesn't have to compete with products produced more cost effective due to low workers wages abroad? Besides cost this also has to be stuff that needs a lot of workers, or it won't benefit the US in terms of jobs.

Automation also played a large role. I can't remember where I read it, but about a year ago I saw and article that showed that automation was destroying more jobs than it created for the first time in known history. We're not going to be able to fix that without a serious change in either our property rights or perhaps a reduction in full time hours, or something with a similar effect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com