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Interesting. I was fortunate to be born in the late 70's in Blossom Valley in SJ because both sets of my grandparents happened to be US military families whom lived in Europe, US and Asia. I remember the wineries along Blossom Hill Road and a couple of the hold-out farmers, one whom had this massive square field at Allen Avenue & Blossom Hill Road, plowing every autumn as a signal school would start soon. Also, occasionally finding rusty shards of nails in the backyard from the turn of the century and roaming the hinterlands of Almaden Valley on a bicycle (flying down Hicks Road at 38 mph while riding the rear tire). Even luckier that my father's small business allowed my attendance for K-3 to a private school, then public SJUSD and finally UC system mostly because the herd was steamrolling onto Harvard, MIT and Stanford (where I later moonlighted between quarters). As a point of reference, my grandparents paid 30k for a house in the late 60's which is now worthy a megabucks... no middle- or working-class person could afford that today because the global demand to be in SV wasn't what it is today obviously. It is somewhat of goldrush fever, however the density of talent, wealth and customers is a compelling, complete ecosystem which evolves as fast as anywhere, probably with a nod to the historical demographic "filter" of the more open/risk-tolerant persons venturing to the mostly "new" land c. 19th century onwards (take Japanese culture as one example, where misfits and eccentrics tended to flee to other major cities). Overall, it seems that the quasi differential equational model of resource scarity meets population / technology / wealth gradually leads to better technologies, cheaper goods/services but it becomes gradually harder (but not impossible) to profit from innovation (3000th ToDo list app), afford to pay workers fairly (coupled with decline of unions) and materials tend to become more expensive (before pervasive recycling). It may be that prices are pushed up as workers get smart and demand higher pay, since fewer living in their cars working minimum wage and exploitation in emigration limbo (hospitality, agriculture, industrial), seems like a Good Thing(tm). Another enabler would be more rapid mass transit such as hyperloop, able to foster more distant suburbs to make city work livable for more families, despite increased distance. Space and biomedical seem the most promising industries long-term, as are other business models that are durably defensible or decommodifiable (wow, I sound PHB). Finally, static anything is an illusionary, psychological construct affording apparent safety and continuity; change is but one of the constants. |