Read on Twitter
Tech is a massive engine for inequality. It doesn't level the playing field, it tilts it further. We're not democratizing access, expanding opportunity, or whatever other buzzword you want to use. If we don't reckon with that as an industry we are deeply screwed.
Don't believe me? Moats, network effects, power laws - these are all the language of winner take all or winner take most markets. That is the ultimate goal in many cases - to do so well you don't have any competition. And the thing is, we're succeeding.
That's why we're seeing so much money flow into the tech ecosystem. That's why tech is such a wealth creation engine. FAANG and even the newer class of entrants that are jumping on the fiery hot IPO market are all winners in monopolistic or oligopolistic markets.
Monopolies exacerbate inequality, they don't reduce it. These are the secular trends we're living through right now. The world is getting less equal, not more and the internet revolution is one of the core drivers of those trends.
Still don't believe me? Here's a more tangible example. Globalization and the flattening of the world in the last 40 years has rewarded those who are the best in their field at the cost of everyone else.
100 years ago, if you were a mediocre Opera singer you could probably still make a living as a performer in a 3rd tier city. Today, you better be Andrea Bocelli.
At his peak in 1975, Pele signed a 3 year, $2.8m making him the highest paid athlete in the world. Even in inflation adjust terms that's a fraction of the $120m Messi made last year.
Globalization exacerbates inequality and there is no more powerful globalizing force than the internet. COVID has taken those trends and poured jet fuel on the fire.
If we don't reckon with this, then we are in deep, deep trouble as an industry. It doesn't matter how much "good" we can create, inequality breeds instability. The extreme polarized times we're living in are a deeper symptom of these trends.
It doesn't matter if people are better off based on some absolute metrics, we are not absolute creatures but relative ones. If we don't get ahead of this then we will inevitably be the next heads on the hopefully metaphorical pikes.
We're already seeing that to some degree though thankfully it's early, but it will only get worse. I say this as someone who believes deeply in the transformative nature of our industry. I believe in the true value creation it enables because I live and breathe it every day.
I believe profoundly that we have the power to make life better for everyone. But, if we don't deal with the economic side effects of that creation, then none of it will matter. </rant>
