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It was the perfect storm of conditions and timing that allowed this slow build-up of culture you mentioned. And correct me if I'm wrong (seriously), but aren't the other tech hotspots much newer? Silicon Valley has the momentum of decades behind it, and continues to attract talent. However, if as we've said it disappeared overnight, there is no reason that talent wouldn't pool somewhere else.
Some of them, yes. Actually, the northeast was actually where almost all the cutting edge tech was until the last few decades, especially concentrated around New York City with Bell Labs and IBM. SV itself is fairly new and there were other corridors that held the mantle before it and sort of slipped while SV surged ahead.
Is this thread a joke? Are people here really that ignorant? Silicon Valley is probably the major tech center of the United States and the center piece of the Bay Area economy but anyone who thinks it's more important than Wall Street knows nothing about the economy. The companies that make up Silicon Valley are PART of Wall Street, not the other way around. The US economy is compromised of much more than just tech, and companies of all the different sectors have their stock publicly traded on Wall Street. Just because the iPhone or Google is more ubiquitous in your every day life, does not make them the centerfold of the US economy. Not even close to it. Please educate yourselves.
Both of these have some of the smartest people in the country. Both fight for the best grads in the country. Both are important.
Which is more important? Which creates the most wealth? Which can make you become a millionaire or billionaire within a couple years?
Wealth creation - silicon valley
Wealth destruction - wall street.
Banks have ruined this country through fiat currency. Wealth is either a natural resource or converting a natural resource to a usable product.
Fiat currency as it stands today, is stealing wealth from those who produce to those who benefit from the fiat currency (banks and government).
The smartest are those in CA.....as science is what brought us here today.
We can't even agree on which eocnomic theory is best. Austrian school is the best, but the government likes keynesian because they can steal from the public.
Wealth creation. Well, Wall Streeters on average make far more than Techies. Average financial services employee in NYC earns nearly $400,000. The average tech worker in Silicon Valley earns only $110,000 or so. Not to mention finance & investments is the #1 "profession" amongst members of the Forbes Billionaire list. Technology isn't even close.
But that's beside the point - I'm going for the bigger pictures. Wall Street lends money to small businesses, many of whom turn into massive Fortune 500 companies. Wall Street invests and makes people wealthy. Many of your parents have retired on money invested via Wall Street.
I don't care about the smartest (that can not be measured unless someone takes iq workers and does a comparison) but Wall Street is more important than Silicon Valley. Do you clowns really think the world would stop if Facebook crashed the way the world crashed when Wall Street crashed in 2008? LOL. People would simply move onto the next form of entertainment.
Wall Street is only losing this poll because people have a vendetta against Wall Street. Time to grow up.
Do you clowns really think the world would stop if Facebook crashed the way the world crashed when Wall Street crashed in 2008? LOL. People would simply move onto the next form of entertainment.
It's really not good to use Facebook for this sort of comparison. It'd be much better to use something like Cisco Systems, which controls the communication systems of many companies, or perhaps even cloud computing kings like Google & VMware (Google is much more than a search engine). There's also countless companies within Silicon Valley which build system architecture for giant companies. If companies like that were to fail, mega companies would suffer, bigtime. However, it wouldn't have the same long term macro-effect that the mess at Wall Street caused.
With that said, being able to totally f-up the economy and everyone's lives isn't necessarily the best way to gauge this sort of thing. If that were the case, Houston would be up there with NYC/Wall Street in importance simply because they've got a strangehold on the energy sector.
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Wall Street is only losing this poll because people have a vendetta against Wall Street.
That could be true.
Ultimately, it's difficult to say one is definitively more important than the other...I think ultimately I'd lean more towards Wall Street, but to downplay the importance and power of Silicon Valley like you're doing isn't the way to go either.
As one of millions of Americans with a 401(k), Wall Street has a very tangible service for me.
And yeah, Silicon Valley is very important, but how'd that dotcom bubble work out there? And if you think the Tech companies are so uniquely dominant to the economy, you should check out Berkshire Hathaway (i.e. the largest investment company in the world that famously avoids tech stocks).
"very tangible service for me"...someone typed on a computer (or smartphone) that is connected to the Internet
"very tangible service for me"...someone typed on a computer (or smartphone) that is connected to the Internet
Except neither the computer, the internet, nor the smartphone were invented in Silicon Valley. They existed before the rise of Silicon Valley, and will continue to evolve well past the dominance of Silicon Valley as other tech centers emerge. FAIL
All the major players in Silicon Valley were able to grow to their current size because they became publicly traded companies. Silicon Valley needed the investment from Wall Street in order to get to its current size. There's no denying a lot of innovation occurs at Silicon Valley, or that's it's not a major player in the economy, but to rank it as more important than Wall Street is ludicrous and idiotic. Silicon Valley is but one aspect of the US economy, meanwhile Wall Street plays a part in various MAJOR sectors of the economy.
Except neither the computer, the internet, nor the smartphone were invented in Silicon Valley. They existed before the rise of Silicon Valley, and will continue to evolve well past the dominance of Silicon Valley as other tech centers emerge. FAIL
In all fairness, Stanford was one of the three universities which played a major role in the creation of the internet (along with UCLA and MIT). And while SV didn't invent the computer, it's certainly played a large part in making the computer what it is today. Same goes for smartphones. The two largest mobile OS's in the world are easily iOS and Android, both based out of SV. I'm not sure why not being the "creators" of something should reduce its importance. New York didn't have the first stock exchange in the world or even the United States...should that reduce its importance on the world of finance? Hell no.
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All the major players in Silicon Valley were able to grow to their current size because they became publicly traded companies. Silicon Valley needed the investment from Wall Street in order to get to its current size.
To an extent, but not necessarily. An IPO can certainly give a company some well-needed capital but it's hard to say they became what they were due to Wall Street. It must be noted that a traditional IPO doesn't necessarily give the company a massive cash injection. Most of the time, that cash from an IPO goes to private shareholders who are selling their shares of the company. However, when selling company-held shares/treasury stock, yes, the cash will go directly to the company. Apple was down in the dumps for a decade before the iPod came along, and now they're the world's largest company by market cap. It had nothing to do with a cash injection by Wall Street.
For the most part, tech companies become what they are through angel investors/venture capitalism in the early stages, and then various forms of PE/debt issuances later on.
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There's no denying a lot of innovation occurs at Silicon Valley, or that's it's not a major player in the economy, but to rank it as more important than Wall Street is ludicrous and idiotic. Silicon Valley is but one aspect of the US economy, meanwhile Wall Street plays a part in various MAJOR sectors of the economy.
Again, I agree to an extent because I do believe that overall Wall St is probably a bit more important/influential, but you can't ignore the power of technology. Tech isn't some isolated industry...it connects the world and allows industries like Wall Street to function the way they do. Obviously tech isn't limited to SV (nor is finance limited to Wall Street), but it's the major cluster on the planet.
And yeah, Silicon Valley is very important, but how'd that dotcom bubble work out there?
It worked out about as well as the 2008 financial crisis...what's your point?
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And if you think the Tech companies are so uniquely dominant to the economy, you should check out Berkshire Hathaway (i.e. the largest investment company in the world that famously avoids tech stocks).
Ehhhh by market cap, yes, but not in terms of AUM. There's no doubt you could say Berkshire Hathaway is one of the premier investment firms on the planet (if not the premier investment firm), however just because it avoids tech stocks doesn't mean tech isn't a good industry. It's just a different investment philosophy.
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