Silicon Valley Upset By Trump, But Partially Responsible

Ok, this post is not about fiction -- unfortunately.

But, as we are learning hour by hour, President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration has caused chaos, not just at airports and other points of entry into the U.S., but around the world.





And guess what?  The leaders of Silicon Valley are very upset. Many of them come from an immigrant background and more importantly, they are heavily reliant on immigrants to fill high-tech positions in their companies. You can read about their distress in detail in a New York Times article entitled "Silicon Valley’s Ambivalence Toward Trump Turns to Anger."

But I'm only partially sympathetic. Why? Because U.S. high-tech companies -- Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, etc. -- have enthusiastically embraced the principle of "disruption" as their business model. Turn existing methods of doing things upside down -- all for greater profit of the one percent. That has been the mantra of high-tech executives as they have accumulated billions while many thousands of people in traditional occupations have been unceremoniously thrown out of work as a result of their activities.

Now, President Trump, elected in large part by those left behind, has embraced disruption big time and guess who is now being forced to swallow their own medicine?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Trump supporter.

But there is a message here and one wonders if those who have hailed the benefits of "disruption" and richly profited from it at the expense of others will get it.