Regarding software design and appliance design … my point wasn’t that everyone could do it, just that the legal barriers to entry are a lot lower than other skilled professions. Including plumbing, BTW.

Regarding segregation … They say that the West Coast is less conscious of social class, blah, blah, blah, but I see a lot fewer gated communities in the Northeast than in California. In fact, they’re pretty much outliers around NYC, not like in San Diego where every little condo complex has a gate and key pad.

Security on this coast also seems a bit of a joke. When I first moved to NY, I needed the front door key to my old building. The super told me — “go to the locksmith {around the corner}, say you live in at {address} and he’ll make you a key for $10.”

And take a town like Morristown — it has its poor areas, but also parts with well-kept mansions dating from the 1800s. I grew up in another town in NJ. I went to high school with the children of high AT&T executives, the children of secretaries, and the children of plumbers … no one really cared all that much.