I’ll take “You don’t have to be smart to be a programmer” for $500.

Like Dienes, I think you're reading this wrong. It's not the silicon valley types who want independence, it's the other way around.

Silicon valley types want California divided up into six states, one of them being the state of Silicon Valley.

That's a different can of worms, though, and even less likely to happen, what with three times as many regions having to be in agreement. Not gonna happen until it's enforced with T-51 Power Armor and Nuka-grenades.

Silicon Valley types want to move back into their mom's basement, only in a supervillan underwater volcano lair filled with hot nerd girls.

They're just like the rest of us really.

They’d absolutely get fucked on water rights and what little they grew would probably taxed to shit.

What people might realistically want is less wealth disparity through taxes and investment in infrastructure and education.

California is like the 5th largest economy in the world but the infrastructure and education is shameful (pre-uni).

I'm p sure that with the cities they kept, the new state would also be majority Democrats.

I think you've got it backwards. The old state would remain Democrat. The new state would lean heavily Republican.

It's basically is an attempt at gerrymandering on an epic scale.

But it is kind of cute how they are trying to steal San Diego, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Sonoma counties. I supposed they'll need the money from those blue suburbs to finance their "state."

We hate tech. But we want google and Apple and Facebook.

Yeah - that's right up there with "We hate the damn gubmit - HEY WHY ARE YOU DAM LIBRULS TRYING TO SHUT DOWN DC THIS WEEKEND!!???!"

That’s kind of what I meant. They wouldn’t be republican. They would be now-liberal with a heavy dose of libertarianism.

Silicon Valley depends on all the surrounding areas for food labor and services. They couldn’t function without it.

The issue isn’t that they don’t need each other. The issue is the tech wealth disparity. Honestly tech needs to pay less and tech companies need to pay more into general tax/welfare/infrastructure.

Agreed. Tech companies need to start footing their share of the tax bill here for sure.

"tech needs to pay less" - i'm sorry, what? are you suggesting that salaries for skilled labor are too high compared to their unskilled neighbors, or are you just highlighting that wealth concentration = gentrification? because it seems that Tech does want to "pay less" through all that skilled immigrant H1b labor pool (/s) that republicans are fighting against.

"tech companies need to pay more", largely on this i would agree, but the Republicans in power apparently disagree given the recent tax law passed. The comment from Apple about repatriating funds and investing is great - I expect them to increase their footprint in Austin or a new site in Raleigh, NC area. or just buy Detroit, which wouldn't be all bad.

but they could have been compelled to pay more, and Republicans are arguing that they don't need it.

I'm not sure "paying less" would solve it. I think there's also an issue, when I say taxes and reinvesting, that using H1b visas and shipping jobs overseas is part of what I mean when I say reinvest.

I guess my overarching issue is, what's the point of making tons of money when rent is 3.5K a month. It's literally living in a boom town.

When you have to work for samsung and facebook to buy a house built in 1950 that costs 3.5 times the price it used to (adjusted for inflation) and you still have to pay 2.6K a month in property tax just to maintain a home (unless you've lived here for ages and have prop 13, which is also a problem/issue).

So I guess I kind of mean getting paid less- but the theoretical counterpoint to that is that a reasonable living environment would actually increase PPP.

OK, so yes you are mostly talking about gentrification. I do see that as a problem but the rentier class does not. you are paying 3.5k because if you didn't someone else would. it is considered "affordable" by someone, somewhere, otherwise the rents would come down. i've read about new (entry / recent grads) having to create mock "dorms" where multiple people share an appartment to split the rents, but all i can think of when i read that is "welcome to London, home of the flatmate". this isn't a new idea or new problem, and blaming the tech sector simply because they are the New Money doesn't really change things.

now, a different question obviously is "who pays the infrastructure", or a bit differently, are the people working in the cafe, the cleaners, the Starbucks Baristas colocated on these tech campuses getting paid more to do the same job than if they were in a hospital, or airport, or other non-tech location? are teachers who work in the schools within these tech boroughs paid more than those in say Oakland or Ventura? the answer is probably "no", and so the impact isn't really felt by the Landed Gentry but by those who are dependent on jobs in areas they can't afford to live.

As a counterpoint, property values in the PDX area have gone up more than 20% in the last three or so years. my salary has gone up about 18% in the same period, but i'm an exception (most of that came as a large increase due to promotion, otherwise it would have been in the 2-3% annual range). but i own property so for me this is all fine, if i were renting i would have also seen a large uptick in the rates, and the obvious question of this is Cui Bono? where is the money flowing to, and where do the rentier class call home?

I'm aware the coast would stay OC, my point was that they didn't manage to shunt away all the liberal strongholds. They can't afford to.

Just part of the 11 nations of north America.

MAP

I don't like Tidewater's outlook in this scenario.

Too big or too small?

Small.

I live near Monterey, and sometimes go into Salinas. Yesterday took me south of Tres Pinos, and on the way back I stopped at the restaurant there for beer and food. (Amazingly good place for something called The Hole.) While I ate I overheard a couple of guys griping, and one of them was saying how all the libtards are starting to buy up the houses in the area and drive up the prices so no one else can afford to live there. I carefully made no mention that I was out there looking at the area as a possible place to buy land.

There really are two Californias in close proximity to one another. Being a conservative in one area can mean being a libtard ten miles away- I'm not liberal enough for some, and far too liberal for others. Considering the wealth disparity here that's no surprise.

The trailer towns in the parks here that fuel the service industry speak towards that. Also the price of gas and a daily two hour commute to a minimum wage job.

My only problem with this is that my city would be on the wrong side of the border. If the central valley and mountains want their own Republican state they are welcome to it, but they aren't taking Silicon Valley with them. Like KnumbKnutz said, it's just gerrymandering.

Whatever happened to this?

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/is-russia-behind-a-secession-effort-in-california/517890/

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-calexit-leader-moving-to-russia-20170417-htmlstory.html

And. . .

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/01/17/fox-news-and-russian-state-media-are-promoting-conspiracy-theorists-california-secessionist-ploy/219089