Ask HN: Does innovation have a liberal bias? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does innovation have a liberal bias?

When I look at lists of startup hubs in the US, all I see are liberal bastions, politically speaking. Are there conservative strongholds that are startup hubs in or outside the US?

If you thought the title was asking a different question, what'd you think it was asking and what would your response to it be?

View on HN

Startup hubs are in cities, because living in a large, dense population allows you to easily meet more people who share your interests/skills/motivations. People in cities (as compared to people living in less densely populated areas) skew towards favouring government-provided services. In the US this is deemed “liberal” and its opposite is deemed “conservative”.

They are correlated, but I don't think either of them causes the other.

Richard Florida's fascinating Rise of the Creative Class purports to explain this. In short, startup culture heavily correlates with acceptance and welcoming of diverse lifestyles, and distaste for conformity and conventions --- things which correlate heavily with social liberalism.

"acceptance and welcoming of diverse lifestyles"

Does that include views of social conservatives or rich people?

Rich conservatives are accepted in almost every country and city. They are like American Express in that regard

Not that the political meanings of liberal / conservative in the US are very strongly tied to the literal meanings of the words, but isn't "conservative" actually an antonym of "innovative"?

According to dictionary it is: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conservative "1. favouring the preservation of established customs, values, etc., and opposing innovation"

It would make sense that someone who thinks of their finances conservatively wouldn't go for all or nothing bet on a start-up. One can make a lot of money in financial companies climbing up corporate ladder, it would strike me as a more conservative approach to building a fortune.

What difference does it make?

And first time I read the title, it reminded me of Colbert's saying, "Reality has a liberal bias"

I guess the real question is if liberal governmental policies encourage innovation better than conservative ones.

If you take the somewhat cliché'd (but still true, imho) view of conservatives favoring protectionism of industries and large companies, causation/correlation notwithstanding, it would follow that there's less innovation because large companies are sluggish to innovate.

If you take the alternate (but still true, imho) cliche of the burden of liberal taxation, it would follow that there's less innovation because it is harder for small companies to grow due to liquidity constraints imposed by tax burden.

It's probably mixed. Lower taxation encourages the type of risk-taking that leads to innovation, but government spending on science and technology also leads to innovation.

Silicon Valley, for what it's worth, was innovative long before it was a liberal bastion. And while the liberal bastion of Austin is booming these days, it's subject to the same rather conservative governmental policies as the rest of us in Texas.

And the purpose is to help understand how to cultivate innovation in communities.

"Reality has a well-known liberal bias" -- Stephen Colbert

Reply on news.ycombinator.com