I was referring specifically to the "culturally" part. The geographic difference between Silicon Valley and North Carolina is indisputable, but I'm curious about your take on the culture. I see a lot of similarities between Republicans and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, e.g. anti-regulation stances, anti-labor stances, etc.
That's an argument reducing to absurdity. Every company has an long chain of transitive contractors, and for every company you can work all your way down to the poorest person on Earth, so it's meaningless.
I could similarly blame you for the labor conditions of these people - you paid Apple or whoever to make your phone so are you responsible for their conditions?
The people that Apple employs are extraordinarily well treated and compensated, and that's a credit to Apple and their labor relations.
> you paid Apple or whoever to make your phone so are you responsible for their conditions?
Yes, absolutely, to some degree — do you think I'm not? Even if you don't think so, do you think Apple isn't to some degree responsible for the working conditions of nearly a million employees within the company that it knowingly contracts out to to produce about 200 million iPhones a year?
Follow up question: Which American political party do you think would be more likely to condone the above practice, Democrats or Republicans?
Basically I'm trying to figure out why you think there's a big cultural difference between Silicon Valley (50 square miles) and "The Carolinas" (85,839 square miles) and why that's meaningful to the wider discussion. Your original comment perplexed me as someone who is familiar with both regions. I agree that they are dissimilar but I definitely don't think they are "as far as you can get ... culturally." Happy to get back to that original subject if you are.