I don't understand how this happens. The tech industry is pretty much the only economic game in town. How does it fail so hard at politics, losing out to a relatively small amount of middle-aged homeowners?
What I don't get is why all the tech companies don't put their money where their mouth is - and do the same that MAFIAA, radical Christians, Big Oil, Big Ag, Big Tobacco etc are doing: massively donate to young, tech focused aspiring politicians' campaigns, donate to the Democratic Party (or progressive parties in other countries), and otherwise engage in barely legal bribery.
We don't really need to wonder why we have octogenarians with zero clue how the Internet works in power (every Congressional investigation about anything tech is enough meme fodder for the rest of the year)... the tech industry might be absurdly large in financial terms, but it is a complete joke in political lobbying.
The tech industry in the Bay area has a large chunk of the population and a near infinite amount of money, and therefore near infinite political power. Blaming political systems seems a little...backward.
I don't have a opinion on this situation, but there is going to be a point in time when tech workers need to stop thinking that there government is going to do what they want it to do and instead need to actively get into the political process, for example, by running for office. Politics has an effect on everything from poverty to transportation.
Your premise that the tech community is not a major player in local politics because of their relatively small body count does not hold water. Money plays a large influence in local politics. Ron Conway is a perfect example of this: he dines with the mayor and provides major funding to local campaigns and initiatives, which usually win.
Not only. Neoliberals have been busy striping government of its most basic functions, and lobbyists for said tech firms are the the ones that push for lowering taxes and deregulating. So yes, they won. Bigly. But not based on merit. Silicon Valley is not producing anything valuable.
Yet another self-inflicted wound the Congress of old men do to make the US software industry even less competitive. I would argue this is political because the tech industry is a convenient target at the moment, full of young people who tend to vote against the ruling party. That, and legacy industries don't care too much about R&D anyway.
here is the long term trend of that..as each decade advances and it takes 50% less people to create and operate firms like facebook a political storm gets bigger and bigger due the state having gutted certain small business loan and other safety nets..politically high tech firms need to understand the political cliff they are racing towards before its too late
The tech industry has demonstrated supreme amounts of power in the political sphere.
I'm not crying for the political ills of Zuckerberg or Apple or Google. Furthermore, the tech industry is far removed from blue-collar middle class America, with an average of twice the wages and relatively insulated from the ills of globalization.
Just remember: Technocrats are a political group just like any other. You and I may be part of them, but remember that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (aka: EFF) is a lobbying group funded by technocrats, with ideologies that don't necessarily match the average (non-technocrat) American.
Again, I'm a technocrat like most others in this site. I am a programmer by trade and generally agree with the issues brought up by the EFF. Just don't get trapped inside of the "bubble" that is Hacker News or even Reddit. There is a big world out there.
reply