

Ask HN: Does innovation have a liberal bias? - crawfordcomeaux

When I look at lists of startup hubs in the US, all I see are liberal bastions, politically speaking. Are there conservative strongholds that are startup hubs in or outside the US?<p>If you thought the title was asking a different question, what'd you think it was asking and what would your response to it be?
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mooism2
Startup hubs are in cities, because living in a large, dense population allows
you to easily meet more people who share your interests/skills/motivations.
People in cities (as compared to people living in less densely populated
areas) skew towards favouring government-provided services. In the US this is
deemed “liberal” and its opposite is deemed “conservative”.

They are correlated, but I don't think either of them causes the other.

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impendia
Richard Florida's fascinating _Rise of the Creative Class_ purports to explain
this. In short, startup culture heavily correlates with acceptance and
welcoming of diverse lifestyles, and distaste for conformity and conventions
--- things which correlate heavily with social liberalism.

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bob13579
"acceptance and welcoming of diverse lifestyles"

Does that include views of social conservatives or rich people?

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lifeisstillgood
Rich conservatives are accepted in almost every country and city. They are
like American Express in that regard

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wiml
Not that the political meanings of liberal / conservative in the US are very
strongly tied to the literal meanings of the words, but isn't "conservative"
actually an antonym of "innovative"?

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anywherenotes
According to dictionary it is: <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conservative>
"1. favouring the preservation of established customs, values, etc., and
opposing innovation"

It would make sense that someone who thinks of their finances conservatively
wouldn't go for all or nothing bet on a start-up. One can make a lot of money
in financial companies climbing up corporate ladder, it would strike me as a
more conservative approach to building a fortune.

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slater
What difference does it make?

And first time I read the title, it reminded me of Colbert's saying, "Reality
has a liberal bias"

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crawfordcomeaux
I guess the real question is if liberal governmental policies encourage
innovation better than conservative ones.

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slater
If you take the somewhat cliché'd (but still true, imho) view of conservatives
favoring protectionism of industries and large companies,
causation/correlation notwithstanding, it would follow that there's less
innovation because large companies are sluggish to innovate.

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bmelton
If you take the alternate (but still true, imho) cliche of the burden of
liberal taxation, it would follow that there's less innovation because it is
harder for small companies to grow due to liquidity constraints imposed by tax
burden.

