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Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

economist.com

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Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#51

Post by raldi »

enraged_camel wrote: post #28
raldi wrote: post #16

The stereotypical right-wing position is, "This government program is poorly-run; let's get rid of it" The stereotypical left-wing position is, "This government program should be left alone, even if it's poorly-run" The stereotypical Gray Tribe position is, "This government program is poorly-run; let's debug it"

>>The stereotypical left-wing position is, "This government program should be left alone, even if it's poorly-run" No, it is "This government program is poorly-run probably because it is severely underfunded." After all, "government is poorly-run" tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy: it is used to justify spending cuts, which does in fact result in performance problems.

That is true -- it's a very effective playbook to starve a program of funding and then argue it should be eliminated because "it doesn't work".

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#52

Post by WalterBright »

hibikir wrote: post #30
malandrew wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, companies don't generally want regulations. It's almost always a headache and distraction from the core business. However when regulation is finally foisted upon them, they make sure to take the time to influence what regulation they are subject to so that it benefits them and becomes a barrier to entry for new entrants.

The regulation doesn't have to be foisted upon them at all: Regulation that just harms new companies, or competitors of a very different shape, is introduced at the behalf of industry groups all the time. What makes Silicon Valley tech special here is that most of the big companies have great network effects or economies of scale, so it's not as if adding regulations on top will help them much: The moats are already…

Licensing is a typical regulation pushed by established businesses in order to limit the entry of new companies.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#53

Post by raldi »

guelo wrote: post #45
raldi wrote: post #16

The stereotypical right-wing position is, "This government program is poorly-run; let's get rid of it" The stereotypical left-wing position is, "This government program should be left alone, even if it's poorly-run" The stereotypical Gray Tribe position is, "This government program is poorly-run; let's debug it"

Why would the left-wing not want to improve a poorly run program?

Because of donations and assurances of bloc voting from the entities profiting from the inefficiencies and corruption, just like the other side.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#54

Post by lumberjack »

dbroockman wrote: post #14
mattnewton wrote: post #9

I think more simplistically: when you take this group of people and average them out what you get are beliefs that benefit the large companies they represent. That's the signal that is correlated with running a big tech company, and the rest is probably mostly noise. That's all really, they aren't for or against free trade in aggregate, they are for their company trading profitably, on average.

Author of the study they were writing about here. That is the original expectation I had coming in, but I don't think what we find is totally consistent with that (although some is). We talk about that in the paper. Study here: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers... .

I quickly read your paper.

The only way in which technology entrepreneurs deviate from what you would expect, is in their support for more redistribution. But all these people are not paying normal taxes, anyway. Why would they care? Also if you consider the risk of political or economic instability, then even redistribution might just be a self-interested policy stance.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#55

Post by enraged_camel »

raldi wrote: post #51
enraged_camel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>The stereotypical left-wing position is, "This government program should be left alone, even if it's poorly-run" No, it is "This government program is poorly-run probably because it is severely underfunded." After all, "government is poorly-run" tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy: it is used to justify spending cuts, which does in fact result in performance problems.

That is true -- it's a very effective playbook to starve a program of funding and then argue it should be eliminated because "it doesn't work".

Yep.

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." -Grover Norquist, 2001

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#56

Post by projectramo »

ftlio wrote: post #35
projectramo wrote: post #17

I don't like these categories but while we are playing this game: Aren't libertarians also globalists?

If you're a Libertarian and you believe spurring on global trade strengthens the right to property and disrupts governments from legislating moral imperatives, then you might be a globalist. Being neutral to OK with globalism is not the same thing as being a globalist.

I just think of a globalist as believing in free trade and immigration. Surely a position that a libertarian would support.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#57

Post by _0ffh »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #40
granfalloon wrote: post #24

There was a comment about the political influence and aspirations of certain big names in tech, but it has suddenly disappeared. It contained some criticism of Paul Graham and Sam Altman, but seemed totally reasonable to me -- can anyone say why it was deleted?

I wrote it, I don't feel like being an ass and I'm feeling overly aggressive today, not to mention I am a guest in someone else's house. ...but my overall point is that the tech elite is composed of a lot of rich white guys with connections, who naturally help each other out. Sam Altman runs YC now and as of last year was apparently seriously considering running for governor of California. That strikes me as grandios…

I suppose everyone thinks "Trump did it, why shouldn't I? I'm certainly better than that guy!"... but I think they forget that they weren't playing a successful authority figure on TV for years.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#58

Post by milcron »

md224 wrote: post #33

Anyone else here familiar with "liberaltarianism"? I think that might be what the data is showing: the desire for a robust and efficient free market tethered to a redistributive social safety net. I think it's a pretty good idea.

Good idea but an awful name.

"Liberal" has an existing meaning which has been warped by American politics. Both the American parties have a liberal heritage. Republicans are conservative liberals, and Democrats are largely progressive liberals. Libertarianism is a reactionary liberal ideology that seeks to return to a freer, less-regulated market.

The confusion happened due to FDR. He ran on a progressive platform but the term "progressive" was poisoned in American politics at the time, so he called himself "liberal".

There is already a term for what you're describing, simply "left-libertarianism" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-libertarianism

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#59

Post by Iv »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #40
granfalloon wrote: post #24

There was a comment about the political influence and aspirations of certain big names in tech, but it has suddenly disappeared. It contained some criticism of Paul Graham and Sam Altman, but seemed totally reasonable to me -- can anyone say why it was deleted?

I wrote it, I don't feel like being an ass and I'm feeling overly aggressive today, not to mention I am a guest in someone else's house. ...but my overall point is that the tech elite is composed of a lot of rich white guys with connections, who naturally help each other out. Sam Altman runs YC now and as of last year was apparently seriously considering running for governor of California. That strikes me as grandios…

Trump lowered the bar so much that most people think they can do a better job than the current president, and are probably right.

What they miss is that running as a republican is very different than running as a democrat (as I guess most tech people would want to). Zuckberg would beat Trump in the democratic primaries, no question about that. But he won't be in front of Trump, he would be in front of many experiences politicians who actually have a clue about how one manages a country.

Re: Tech bosses are globalists, not libertarians

#60

Post by frostburg »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #40
granfalloon wrote: post #24

There was a comment about the political influence and aspirations of certain big names in tech, but it has suddenly disappeared. It contained some criticism of Paul Graham and Sam Altman, but seemed totally reasonable to me -- can anyone say why it was deleted?

I wrote it, I don't feel like being an ass and I'm feeling overly aggressive today, not to mention I am a guest in someone else's house. ...but my overall point is that the tech elite is composed of a lot of rich white guys with connections, who naturally help each other out. Sam Altman runs YC now and as of last year was apparently seriously considering running for governor of California. That strikes me as grandios…

I wouldn't want to vote for them, but do you think that your actual politicians are qualified or deep thinkers? By "qualified" I don't mean "better than Trump", that's a very low bar.
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