QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I believe the next migration out of California is now also impacting Silicon Valley. Do you see elements of this moving to Austin Texas as the rumors are here in California?
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ANSWER: Yes, the rumors are correct. Silicon Vally if you ranked it as its own nation, it would be in the top 20 in the world even exceeding Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. Most people have no clue the economic significance of Silicon Valley. The real crisis for California is that the net migration has also manifested in Silicon Valley. There were more people leaving Silicon Valley and moving out of state than there were people arriving. In fact, polls taken in the region say that 46% of the people intend to leave which is up from 34% back in 2016.
There are now more start-ups beginning to form outside of Silicon Valley. The costs of just setting things up are estimated to be between 4 to 5 times that of places like Austin Texas. The taxes are insane and the State has relied upon the high taxation from this area to support its grand plans elsewhere. It is just too expensive for innovation to take place in this area anymore.
