[javek]

When you think long-term, to me you can't escape the fact that SC is a small suburban community when compared to a mega-city like NYC. SC started out with a big advantage due to Stanford, and NYC has had large disadvantages to overcome in the past 4 decades due to crime, the collapse of the manufacturing sector, etc. (I read somewhere that until the early 70's NYC had more manufacturing jobs than Detroit due to textiles, etc., which really puts the speed of the shift in NYC's economy in perspective.) NYC has largely solved these disadvantages - it is now a very safe place to live and has an economy based on services, which means it is stocked full of smart ambitious people.

When people are what's important, whether they are customers, engineers, or whatever else, how can a suburb compete? To me it seems analgous to the fact that the tiny island of England could never sustain dominance over the world in the face of competition with a much larger and more diverse America.