If that were the case there would never be any topics on HN about housing, healthcare, education, elections, war or tariffs, yet the "/best" page says otherwise.
This is a discussion forum for intellectual curiosity operated from the investment exhaust of a capital market participant. A recent, adjacent analogy is Jeff Lawson taking his Twilio winnings to buy and operate The Onion. The economic mechanizations are usually underpinnings to something more valuable. HN would still be valuable if YC closed up shop tomorrow (and I personally argue, of greater value than the accelerator; value is subjective of course, so opinions will differ on this). Stay curious.
The collapse of a representative democracy into a corrupt dictatorship similar to Russia should interest anyone who intends to invest money into this economy.
Why would you invest millions and years of your life into building a company if the administration can just decide to take your intellectual property [0] because you made them angry?
Why would you spend effort developing hardware and a domestic manufacturing process if the administration can just declare 100% tariffs on your critical components? Especially when your competitors can just pass off a little bribe and get special treatment: [1]
> Cook and Apple aren't walking away empty-handed. Companies that "are building in the United States," like Apple, won't be subject to a forthcoming 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, Trump said.
There is a reason you don't see world-changing companies arise from states with so much corruption. A free market requires neutral governance - no special treatment or favorites. With this new administration, the US market is looking much more skewed than in the past few decades, and that will have severe consequences for domestic innovation and research.
It certainly should, however large numbers of people in the technical community are welcoming it with glee. This isn't even reactive to the mob boss, this has been coming for years.
