Even Silicon Valley Ruined

John Seiler:

The disastrous policies of federal, state and local governments have not spared even Silicon Valley. Sure, the top digital geeks still trek there. Companies like Facebook still locate there. But Facebook has only about 2,000 employees, many of them in other states.

Scott McNealy, one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley as co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle Corp.), described the Valley’s decline in an interview that’s worth reading in full. Here are a couple of quotes from him:

Out-migration:

I see a migration from the early days of the Valley. We aren’t doing manufacturing; we aren’t doing design; we aren’t doing computers. It’s all moving to Asia and other places where there are lots of technical engineers who are willing to work at a more reasonable salary because they don’t have to spend $3.5 million on a home and pay half of it to taxes….

Maybe I’m sounding like an old guy, but [Silicon Valley] ain’t what it used to be. I, for one, don’t think this is the best place in the world to start a company.

Heavy government burden:

I think every new transition has created less job opportunity as technology has become very leveraged. I don’t think our education system, our regulations, our government policies have kept pace with the changes that technology is driving….

It’s the overhead and the overhang, the clouds brought in by Sacramento and Washington, D.C., the regulations, the deficit and the misallocation of resources. It’s all of those things. Obviously, I’m a believer in the private sector and in personal responsibility.

The biggest issues with the Valley are local, state and federal governmental overreach and overregulation. It’s over-pensioned, over-unionized and over the top.

Few green jobs:

I’m skeptical that the green jobs are [going to drive the recovery]. So far, the track record’s been terrible. That’s going to be a challenge for the people here who stuck their neck out to go green.

The future:

My kids are the ones who are going to have to learn Mandarin. I’ve suggested that to all four of them.

Feb. 22, 2011