Election 2016: Avoiding America’s Disruption
There are so many important issues that Americans must think about this coming election season — immigration, criminal justice reform, national security, education, and much more — but one of the under-the-radar issues so far has been technology policy.
This week Hillary Clinton unveiled her initiative on Technology & Innovation. Software patents, STEM education, and H1-B immigration reform may seem like the narrow concern of Silicon Valley, but nothing could be further from the truth. As technology has become central to our everyday lives, it’s also become a cornerstone of our economy. And if we make the wrong decision in the 2016 election — to steal one of the most well worn phrases in the tech industry — America will be ripe for disruption.
Globally, we are moving from an industrial to a digital economy. In the storied words of Marc Andreessen, “software is eating the world,” and every job, workplace, industry, and government will be re-shaped in the next few decades by new technologies and the business models they make possible.
Just think about the amount of change we’ve experienced throughout the course of the past two presidencies: how we shop, communicate, are entertained, commute, pay bills, find jobs, or travel have changed in fundamental ways. Millions of new jobs have been created in this period — from Uber drivers to iOS programmers — while many others have gone away altogether. Entire industries have been reinvented, and leadership positions of the foremost companies have been as precarious as a GOP candidacy last year.
But this change pales in comparison to what we’ll undoubtably see throughout the next president’s term.
Precision-medicine, autonomous transportation, robotics, automated manufacturing, 3D printed everything (including organs!), artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and countless other innovations are conspiring to change the world around us. America’s leadership in these fields, and our ability to thrive in this future, is not a given. Tens of millions of roles in the workforce will necessarily change, new industries will emerge and others will dissolve, and our interconnectedness and dependencies globally will increase exponentially. This is simultaneously the most exciting time to be alive and perhaps the most complicated.
And like any great institution facing disruption — whether it’s a company or an entire country — we have the choice to sit and do nothing (or worse, regress further into the past) or adapt our strategy, policies, and execution to deal with this shift head-on. Those that choose to close themselves off and become insular will face certain death by not adapting to the new realities of their markets; in contrast, those that endure are open to change and embrace the future, even if it means moving away from what seemingly was instrumental to their success.
Which brings us back to Hillary’s initiative on Technology & Innovation and the 2016 election. Hillary’s comprehensive technology plan includes many smart and informed policy proposals, program ideas and reforms that charge us into the future. Just to name a few: making STEM education available to every student in every school; increasing the availability of modern technology and high-speed internet throughout the country; overhauling immigration to bring the world’s best talent to America; modernizing regulations to accelerate rather than curtail ground-breaking innovation; and improving government IT so it can run more nimbly and efficiently. All of these would reinforce America’s economic competitiveness and broadly benefit the American people.
Of course there’s plenty more to do, but Hillary’s plan offers a view of the government and a vision for America that is open to change and looks to the future instead of the past. The Obama administration kicked off many efforts to move America forward on this path, but the work to be done is far greater than what’s possible in two presidential terms. And like any institution facing disruption, it’s all too easy to bail out early. Change is painful, and there’s always a temptation to pander to those who would gain in the short term by maintaining the status quo. But we need to keep moving forward.
In the coming election, America has an incredibly important choice to make. Our problems won’t be solved by platitudes, hyperbole, catch phrases, or bullying tactics. They’re going to be solved by smart, thoughtful policies, and consistent and relentless execution. We won’t succeed by choosing a leader with unclear policies or a lack of understanding of so many domains of the economy, science, and government — not to mention a really ugly hat. We will succeed if, like Hillary, we choose to acknowledge and address the issues we’re facing head on by embracing change.
