I think it a telling statistic that 23% of the workers in Boulder County are government workers compared to 18% nationally (and that includes military.)  Also Boulder government employment has been growing at almost twice the rate of local private employment the last two quarters of 2005.

Bottom line is Boulder can not become "localized" so long as its government employment is higher than the national average.

Well, the major employers are the university, some high tech companies, and federal research agencies (NIST, etc) -- I'm not entirely sure I follow your reasoning. The federal employment is mostly academic.
The Boulder economy is dependent on outside resource importation to support in the manner to which it wishes to become accustomed.  Given that those imports are governmental, the Boulder economy is freer of efficiency and productivity constraints than free market economies.

In other words, Boulder would have increasing trouble in EARNING its keep in a free market.  Since they increasingly depend on government, they can afford to waste resources on inefficient transport and energy production schemes.

The Boulder economy needs only to be politically correct rather than competitively efficient.

That is a fair analysis, Whitehall, it would serve Boulder well to become more localised and self sufficient in its employment, food production, wealth production, energy generation etc. Hopefully this conference will help begin that process.

But what think you when you extrapolate your criticism to the US as a whole?