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

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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

Hussam Abd/Istanbul, Turkey 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…

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