WHY TECH SHOULD TAKE A STAND AGAINST TRUMP
One of the more interesting question that has come up over the last months since the election is: What should the Tech industry do about the Trump administration?
Over his last week in office, Trump, along with the support of his cronies, has pushed through a number of executive orders that give a good indication of where he wants to take policy in the coming years. This has made the initial question much more interesting, and timely.
I want to try to give some insight to this question, not from the perspective of what or how, but from the perspective of why.
Intelligent (non-belligerent) thoughts/feedback are welcome.
The question of why the tech industry should speak out in this new era of Trump can be divided into three parts, each one increasingly more complex and nuanced. The first, and the easiest to understand, is the MORAL reasoning.
In the past few days, Trump’s “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” (effectively The Muslim Ban) elicited a wave of response from the leaders of the tech community. Finally, after months of silence, industry leaders like Sam Altman, Travis Kalanick, Satya Nadella, Steven Kaufer, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and others, have taken to the interwebs to voice their moral obligation to what is clearly discriminatory (and non-constitutional) policy.
But the moral angle is the easy angle. A large percentage of tech leaders are either immigrants themselves, or direct descendants of immigrants. They have firsthand knowledge of how technology can directly impact the lives of refugees. For example, would the Western World be so aware of the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo if Twitter wasn’t widely available?
But mostly, the moral angle is easy to justify. Either you believe the US should ban all Muslims or not. And while coherent arguments can be made by some that refugees bring with them an added security concern, an outright ban is ludicrous by any stretch. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that tech execs are choosing this specific issue to speak out on, even though they had ample opportunities in the past.
The second reason why is more challenging: the BOTTOM LINE.
Remember when Trump had a sit down with all those tech VIPs? Many wondered why these enlightened tech leaders would get on their knees to kiss the ring. Their reasoning was that they are corporate entities with stockholders to satisfy and quarterly earnings to maintain. While plausible, in the long run it is dubious.
Initially, if Trump gets his way with trade protectionism, any tech company with production facilities abroad (Apple, for example) will undoubtedly see their cost of goods rise. Next, as the economy starts to tip downward, demand for products will decline. Clients that were debating splurging on a new SaaS based BI platform will save their cash for a rainy day and go back to their dirty Excel pivot tables and vlookups.
Further, Trump has proven himself to play favorites. Those companies that are deemed beneficial to his ego (Wall Street) will get preferential treatment over those that are not deemed beneficial (everybody else). It is naive to believe that a two hour sit-down with Trump will have any influence.
And finally, the appeal of “less regulation” is a mirage. Every single time that trickle-down-supply-side economics were touted as a solution (Reagan, Bush, Panic of 1896), the effects were substantially less than promised. A year or two of lower corporate tax rates without the any of the increases in demand to drive long-term growth.
But business is a tricky bitch.
Peter Thiel, Trump’s sole Tech supporter, sits on the board of Facebook. Thiel is also closely connected to Elon Musk, who is reliant on clean energy tax credits to keep SolarCity and Tesla above water.
Even with these increasingly complex Venn Diagrams of control and power brokers, a healthy and stable economic base is a prerequisite for long term sustainable growth, and Trump’s prescribed economic policies will only destabilize the tech ecosystem (and we haven’t even started to talk about how this will affect startups, VCs, and budding entrepreneurs).
The third reason why tech leaders need to take a stand against Trump is CULPABILITY.
As hard as it is for tech industry leaders to admit it, they are partially responsible for the rise and reign of Trump, and they need to take responsibility for their actions.
The internet has made the quality of information worse for a couple of reasons. First, noise is easier, cheaper, and faster to create than quality content. Secondly, noise brings in more money and attracts more eyeballs.
Whether tech companies want to admit it or not, they are partially to blame for creating an environment where noise is more advantageous, and more prevalent, then quality content. This has distinctly shaped the dialogue around this past election, and the subsequent voting results.
But this is nothing as compared to the bigger, and much more bitter, pill that tech needs to swallow.
The rise in technology, and the capital that infuses the ecosystem, is a major factor in the alarming increase in inequality in the US (and in other countries as well).
There is no way to say this nicely, those who work in tech, or have access to tech in their schools, or who have the assets to participate in the growth of tech, have a distinct economic advantage over those who don’t. Ask MIT, ask the IMF, ask Daniel Bliss.
This bubble of inequality has created two distinct Americas. Those who benefit (typically Coastal), and those who feel left behind (“Flyover”). Of all the reasons to support Trump, this is one of the few legitimate ones, and it is worrying to think of where this trend will go.
Don’t get me wrong, tech companies are not actively out there trying to create inequality, but rampant inequality is a symptom of the increasing dominance of the tech industry. And income inequality is one of the root causes of the rise of Trumpism, and all the horrible repercussions that will come out of his policies.
Tech leaders have made amazing strides toward reducing inequality. The Gates Foundation and the Chan-Zuckerberg Foundation are two leading organizations that are working to decrease the gap between have and have-nots. But more needs to be done. Much more.
There should be little doubt in anybody’s mind that the next four years of Trump are going to make those who are less fortunate significantly worse off (ironically also the core of Trump supporters), and to quell this tide tech should take appropriate measures to counter the deleterious effects of Trump’s policies, before it is too late.
So now that we have sorted out why tech should take a stand against Trump, we can start talking about how.
