At Bloomberg View Megan McArdle remarks on the politics of Silicon Valley:
Silicon Valley titans, suggests Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times, are really quite liberal. But there is one major exception to their liberalism: They aren’t very fond of regulation. Especially, one might add, regulation aimed at the tech industry.
This supposition is based on a single paper that is still under peer review. But I suspect that Manjoo was willing to write about it because it fits his anecdotal impression of these people, counterexamples like Peter Thiel notwithstanding. It certainly fits with mine.
If so, they’re certainly obeying the First Law of Politics, attributed to Robert Conquest: “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best”.
It’s not too surprising that the techies of Silicon Valley would be as sanguine as they are about government intervention. Most of the intervention they’ve experienced to date has explicitly been on their behalf, expressly intended to create a space in which their business models would flourish. Now they very much want to pull up the ladder to ensure that they, too, aren’t disrupted.
I cannot speak to the titans, but among the lower ranks, people tend to be socially liberal with a strong libertarian streak — not just a distrust of regulation in their industry, but a distrust in regulation in general.
There’s also a strong belief that because someone is smart in one area (writing code), they are smart in every area — this is usually applied to themselves exclusively. The lack of self-awareness is infuriating.
Also, obviously the government is filled with idiots and the regulations show that.
I always thought he had that not quite right. It should be something like everyone is a crony capitalist at what he knows best, but that doesn’t quite fit either. In other words, people actually want government to actively support that which they know best.
Steve
“In other words, people actually want government to actively support that which they know best.”
Really? Not me, and very few people I know. Sounds more like projection to me.
Sure. Bet you guys are all eager to pay the same cap gains rates we normal folks pay.
Steve