When the great Silicon Valley and Valley took over its distinctive body in the right performance of President Trump, it was a pride of wealth and strength unlike any of any.
“You can return to the era of sect and you can have a similar concentration of capital and power. As you know, Rockefeller and Carnegie,” said historian Margaret Umara. “But they were not on Dais from the opening.”
The moment was open to the diverse interpretation. Was Trump, that most of the male Alpha, as they brought huge likes to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg? Or are all these billionaires in Capitol Rotonda – sitting in front of the cabinet’s choices in Trump – stressing their social, economic and cultural domination?
Maybe both of them.
Regardless, there is no denial of the wonderful escalation of the Silicon Valley and Technology leaders, in one generation, from a group of indifferent entrepreneurs and politicians often to princes made by the king, and the grave universe to the political universe.
Only in America.
And yes, this is the irony you discover.
The interpretation of their support does not lie in creating some changing, changing consumer products, or bright virtues or fertile minds in particular that are known as the essence of silicon valley fruits.
“It is one of the oldest embryos on politics,” said Larry Giston, a professor of political science in San Jose, who has followed the technology industry from a seat in the front -class for decades. “Money buys access.”
Meta Bezos of Amazon and Zuckerberg was among the technological companies that paid every million dollars to help pay the price of Trump’s inauguration. Musk has invested more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump.
Looking at his close proximity to the forty -seventh president, the money appears to be spent well.
Let’s go back to another life, July 1997, when, with a sensation, some of the best entrepreneurs and executives at Silicon Valley announced the formation of a project called the Technology Network. Its headquarters is located in Palo Alto, where it was established as one store to enhance political causes, pressure the issues, and support the favorite candidates. The establishment of the organization and its extravagance at the amount of $ 2 million in changing the pocket was a remarkable exit for the industry, which, until then, did not participate in transit and around the campaigns and elections.
Jeeton said at that time, “These men do not know from politics. Their mentality has always been to take every ten cents they have and put them in research and development, then the product.”
This isolation began to face to a face that changes with the realization that issues such as taxes, definitions, foreign trade and legal responsibility concerned many of the prosperity of high technology and a long -term future. Industry leaders grew more in regional affairs, focusing on topics such as allowing and transporting. At the state level, they spent tens of millions to defeat a ballot in California in 1996, which would have facilitated the lawsuit of security lawsuits. (High -tech companies were a special target for these shareholders because of their volatility))
In Washington, President Clinton and Vice -President of Technology, Al Gore, were shattered by the industrial flirting seriously, and they are eager to link themselves with its imagined coldness and the edge constitution.
At that time, the Internet was in its cradle, and the emerging Silicon Valley companies were seen as in need of care and protection because they faced devices such as Microsoft, the software giant. One of the vetoes was Article 230 of the 1996 December Communications Law, which isolates social media to this day from legal responsibility for content – no matter how burning or wicked – published by users. (At that time, there was nothing like Google, YouTube, Twitter or the like. Zuckerberg was 12 years old.)
“Although the Internet was marketed and everyone was enthusiastic about the global network, it was still something on your office that moved away from it,” said Umara, a professor at the University of Washington and author of the book “The Code: Silicon Valley and The Remake of America.”
“You do not have programs, platforms and tools produced by these companies that disrupt all types of industries from taxis to hotels to politics,” Umara said.
With the growth of industry – widely, largely – and the technology included in all the daily life fibers, it has increased notice and less favorable from Washington. Fears about personal privacy, election overlap, exploitative work practices, and the toxic effects of social media have ignored a lot of shine from the technology industry and its glossy tools, especially among the Democrats.
Republicans had their own grip. Trump, in the first turn of the White House, was charged with Google, Facebook and other social media companies, accusing them of controlling and anti -preservation.
By that time, indifference had long fell out of fashion. Technology leaders and adventure capitalists did what the railways, steel, oil, gas and many other industries did before, as they rented an army of pressure and investment groups extensively in politics and politicians to defend and preserve their interests.
“The men who wanted to leave on their own and move away from politics have realized that their only chance to survive was to introduce themselves into the policy -making process.”
It is just an ordinary commercial feeling.
But there is something, such as the inherited drifts of ancient snow, about the high effect of Trump cabinets and their tense relationship with a president who is clearly fascinated by money and compliment. Zuckerberg has canceled the facts of the third -party facts on Facebook, fearing that it contradicts the Trump -free emissions. Amazon paid $ 40 million to license Melania Trump’s documentary.
The worst of this is the non -sacred financial effect of technology. With the endowments the size of Midas and the Supreme Court that equals political contributions with freedom of expression, they can scream while most of us can only whisper.
Again, it may prove that the money is spent well.
Over the next few years, Trump will have a significant impact on the anti -monopoly policy, the development and use of artificial intelligence and the growth and spread of cryptocurrencies, to name a few, some issues of vital and poor interest in the technology industry. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice continues – at the present time – cases that seek to end the dominance of Google and the alleged Apple practice to make it difficult for consumers to switch programs or devices.
Tim Cook and Swandar Pachay, CEO of Apple and Google, respectively, were among the technical barons that honored Trump. Whatever their tastes in art, you can make sure that they were not there to enjoy statues and oil paintings lined up in the doctrine Capitol Rotunda.