Comment by bilbo0s | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bilbo0s | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

>this was a huge source of confusion among my non-tech blue collar Wisconsin friends. They really did think there would be six figure tech jobs available to anyone with a CC degree....

That's unfair. Wisconsinites are not stupid. We knew what this deal meant for the most part. The issue is corruption. We have few effective methods of fighting it here in Wisconsin. I'm not trying to wuss out or anything, but there is a reality to life in a place like Wisconsin.

Think of it this way, there is probably some percentage above which corruption becomes too ingrained, and you can't do anything about it anymore. Maybe that percentage is 10%? Maybe it's 20%? Whatever. But if a place reaches that tipping point, that's it.

And I don't think that's unique to Wisconsin by the way. I think MOST states and municipalities would present the same issues if their tipping point number was reached. It just becomes very hard to do anything about what's going on around you.

> That's unfair.

I'm not painting with a broad stroke here. I'm referring to specific people I have had specific conversations with.

Of course, Milwaukee, Madison, and also many of the smaller cities in Wisconsin have great engineering cultures with extremely smart people who understand this distinction. And also many Wisconsites with non-Engineering backgrounds obviously understand the distinction.

All I'm saying is that, based on my first-hand experience, there were many in Wisconsin who did not/do not understand this distinction. Which is good news, because that means that explaining simple and easily demonstrable facts can change people's minds.

Perhaps sustained canvassing on this issue would be a good way to change things in WI. I've been able to win a few people over by explaining over a year ago where this whole thing was going to go and then reminding them any time there's a development.

Thank you for that clarification.

When Walker's recall campaign failed, I stopped being sad about leaving the state, because at that moment I knew that it was now majority gullible idiot.

Walker is as much of a track mark on Wisconsin's dirty drawers as Blagojevich was on local and state government back when I lived in Chicago--perhaps a bit less obvious about it, and with an (R) instead of a (D) pinned to his dark money drop box.

From my perspective, it looks like the corruption is growing, the normal measures to fight it are not effective, and it may be necessary to take up arms to bring it back under control, or just leave and not look back. It seems like almost everywhere is at least near its tipping point, if not already well past it. The Citizens United decision might have made it a runaway.

I agree it's not unique to Wisconsin. Maybe it's more prevalent in places that don't have that much industry in that area, so it's easier to fool people. When a new amazon fulfillment warehouse comes to a city, hopefully people know it's not going to be filled with programmer level salaries. But if you had no expose to software design and only had warehouses then you might not know the difference.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com