Do government incentives work?
They certainly do. People do care about taxes, though it’s not the No. 1 driver. Just look at Massachusetts and California, where taxes are high, though we are reducing capital gains taxes in Massachusetts. It’s about efficient, predictable services. You should benchmark against the best. How long does it take to build a building in Florida? In Silicon Valley, you can go from raw land to a building ready for occupancy in nine or 10 months. In Massachusetts, it’s 18 months. And that’s not because of snow, it’s because of a lousy, inefficient, featherbedded, entrenched government. Find out if that’s the kind of government you’ve got. In Massachusetts, we’re changing that, and the governor is preapproving land all over the state for biotech development. But that’s because North Carolina is kicking our butt. But Raleigh/Research Triangle area is boring. There’s no interesting research going on. It’s a cheap place to do manufacturing, but they’re not creating anything. Q: Any other thoughts
