[ap22213]

Then why can't the talent be leveraged elsewhere? We all know that capital moves around quite easily.

So, what makes some places more effective at turning talent into wealth than others? Could be a lot of things, for sure. But, my guess is that it's mainly 'culture'. And, once all those new people come, that culture is no more.

[msellout]

Counter-example: the US.

Besides, what better "culture" do you want than people who are leaving family and friends to seek work? Sounds like valuable work ethic to me.

[kspaans]

There could be other reasons too, like infrastructure. You probably can't house a dev team in a small town far away from a major city where the internet is slower. (To name just one type of infrastructure.)

Or perhaps it's human capital that can't be moved: customers and devs need to be close, so putting the devs on a cheap tropical island with a good fibre connection won't cut it.

[knughit]

Kansas City has gigabit, yet Silicon Valley still exists, so inter et connectivity isn't the major factor.

[humbertomn]

Then Canada and Australia should be getting poor... But nope! Australia is the only economy with no recession in the last 24 years.