For all the hype Silicon Valley gets, the companies of the world's 2 richest people are in the Seattle area.
People are usually including Amazon and MS when they use the metonym "Silicon Valley".
It's a long valley!
Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
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Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#72For all the hype Silicon Valley gets, the companies of the world's 2 richest people are in the Seattle area.
One of the reasons Bezos picked Seattle was due to Microsoft having a lot of software engineers he could get. So MSFT is a big reason that Bezos is in Seattle. Also it was close to one of the biggest book distributors. Amazon was originally a book store.
That is the same reason many Seattle startups picked being in Seattle. Software engineers, cost efficient to run a startup (office space), a great startup ecosystem, 2 hours from the valley, and decent ability to raise capital.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wasn't Microsoft founded in Albuquerque?
Yes. And Bezos is from New Mexico also. Strange because New Mexico consistently ranks near last in quality of life, employment prospects and education.
Not surprisingly both left New Mexico and set up shop somewhere more civilized.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#74For all the hype Silicon Valley gets, the companies of the world's 2 richest people are in the Seattle area.
One of the reasons Bezos picked Seattle was due to Microsoft having a lot of software engineers he could get. So MSFT is a big reason that Bezos is in Seattle. Also it was close to one of the biggest book distributors. Amazon was originally a book store.
I read somewhere that it was related to tax optimization. That is, if you sell a book from California, you have to apply state tax to California residents (38M) but if you sell it from Washington, you don't. So the fact that Washington had fewer potential customers than California (or New York, where Jeff Bezos was working previously), meant a smaller tax bill for its country-wide customer base.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. One family that is directly measurable however: offspring of Sam Walton. Bill G is a distant second by that yard stick: https://www.forbes.com/profile/walton-1/
And that's why the individual Walton's are usually on the list. They usually occupy around 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th places.
When those fortunes split 3-5 ways again they'll be diluted down to 80th or so.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#76For all the hype Silicon Valley gets, the companies of the world's 2 richest people are in the Seattle area.
If you count the number of billionaire, Palo Alto alone has 13 billionaires in a town of 66,000 people. It's ranked #25 on the list of cities with most billionaires and Seattle is not even on the list. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/03/09/the-citie...
i think (based on the patterns of life/work/commuting around here) that palo alto should not count so much as a town as the rich neighbourhood of the bay area.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
maybe they dont count corruption?
maybe they should.
When you're embezzling money the last thing you want is to reveal enough information about your stash to show up on these lists.
Saddam Hussein obviously had tons of liquid assets but the totality of them was never truly known. It was all squirreled away, and likely stolen by the caretakers when his regime imploded and the threat of retribution was removed.
How much did Pablo Esbobar have at his peak? We can only guess, but given the staggering cash-flow rate of an estimated $500 million per week, perhaps as much as $30 billion. This is 1980s dollars, too. Adjusted for inflation that's absolutely nuts.
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
unlike SF, we've got land to build on, and are doing so. lots of new apartments south and east of Lake Union - aka Amazonia.
San Francisco has tons of land to build on. The density there is an absolute joke. Whenever someone proposes building something one story too high the local neighborhood groups lose their collective shit and shut it down.
Unrelated, but I wonder what the sweet spot is height/floor wisefor developing affordable units. That is, given zero pushback from local citizenry and groups, if a locality wanted dense housing due to lack of space, at what point does adding a story make average cost per unit slightly more expensive instead of slightly less expensive (assuming it actually is cheaper to add a second or third story than a single story complex).
Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's the point....for all the hype SV gets, Seattle should get some too....
Houses are going for 500k+, please, less hype actually. All we want to do is build cool product and enjoy our life. I don't think anyone in Seattle wants the SV arrogance and lifestyle.
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Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person
#80For all the hype Silicon Valley gets, the companies of the world's 2 richest people are in the Seattle area.
Seattle has one of the lowest amounts of sun per year of all metros in the USA. It selects for those who are serious about work, more than weather.
The weather isn't that bad here. It's overcast a lot and there are a lot of "rainy" days but it's usually a light mist or sprinkle. It rarely drops below freezing in the winter and the summers, while short, have long days and are quite dry. Maybe the bay area has better weather but I'd take Seattle weather over most of the US (Chicago, Austin, NY, DC, etc)