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Comment by CydeWeys | Hacker News Reader

The article completely overlooks social issues. Tech people may span the fiscal political spectrum, but they tend to be progressive as far as social issues go. Kansas does not have any appeal to most of the tech people I know for that exact reason. They've even rejected the Medicaid expansion for the ACA, which is a useful social safety net for early stage founders with unsuccessful startups.

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Doesn't seem relevant given the number of places in Europe that are more progressive and failed to replicate silicon valley.

That doesn't seem relevant given the many other differences between European countries and the US, that don't apply to California vs Kansas.

I don't think statewide social/political issues have much bearing, otherwise, e.g., Austin wouldn't be as successful as it is. Locally progressive is important. I don't know how Kansas City fares in that regard. A University nearby with a strong CS program is important and Universities usually bring with them the progressive crowd.

Is Austin doing well? I keep hearing "Austin has tech!" but I've found it hard to find impactful companies there. It seems like every year when I look them up, most of the companies from the year before have disappeared (minus Dell, Apple, Google offices).

What are you talking about? Which companies have disappeared?

Among different companies in Austin: Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, Cloudfare, Twitch, Facebook (not engineering though...sigh), Blizzard, EA, Intel, ARM, Samsung ... I can go on, but I think I've made my point.

Texas has not expanded its Medicaid program under the ACA. It's dealing with a bathroom bill at the moment too. Just because these happen at the statewide level does not mean that they don't affect people's lives. A tiny blue enclave in a red sea is still affected by the waves.

Is Austin really that successful from a tech standpoint? Which major companies and startups are based there? Which ones have large offices?

Silicon Valley is full of conservatives that are there because that's where the jobs are.

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