Why Big Tech Is More Competent Than the U.S. Government

This article by Byrne Hobart was originally published on Palladium Magazine on July 1, 2020. It was featured in PALLADIUM 16: After Populism. To receive PALLADIUM 16: After Populism, subscribe today. The largest technology companies affect so many people that it’s natural to compare them to states. That’s true at a simple numeric level—Mark Zuckerberg has more constituents than Narendra Modi, Jack Dorsey has veto power over Donald Trump’s speeches, and Tim Cook has to navigate the perilous China-Taiwan relationship to keep selling phones. But the parallels are more literal than that. In the COVID-19 crisis, it was tech companies that provided coordination, logistics, and a safety net to mitigate an unparalleled healthcare and logistics crisis. There have been 40.8 million unemployment claims filed in the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and many companies that haven’t laid employees off have instituted hiring freezes and wage cuts. Amazon, by contrast, hired 175,000 temp

This article by Byrne Hobart was originally published on Palladium Magazine on July 1, 2020. It was featured in PALLADIUM 16: After Populism. To receive PALLADIUM 16: After Populism, subscribe today. The largest technology companies affect so many people that it’s natural to compare them to states. That’s true at a simple numeric level—Mark Zuckerberg has more constituents than Narendra Modi, Jack Dorsey has veto power over Donald Trump’s speeches, and Tim Cook has to navigate the perilous China-Taiwan relationship to keep selling phones. But the parallels are more literal than that. In the CO