Crash the train to stop it

[Rajoo]

The libertarian view:

It was particularly unfortunate that this was happening to a sector that has historically rejected state interventions of any kind, railing against attempts at heavier regulation and insisting all its problems would be solved if only the government would just back off. Elon Musk’s behaviour at Twitter is a perfect example of the general attitude of Silicon Valley; when Zuckerberg came up with his mantra, “move fast and break things”, he didn’t just mean code.

Thiel himself is so committed to libertarianism that he has established an eponymous foundation to “defend and promote freedom”. He has also invested at least $500,000 into the Seasteading Institute, an organisation that wants to establish a series of tiny, ocean-bound nations, each run according to laws set by their founders. Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, has previously suggested a “limit” on laws to “some set of pages”. “When you add a page, you have to take one away,” he said.

But stuck on a sinking ship this weekend, Silicon Valley found itself begging the state for help. “This is an *extinction level event*,” warned Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator. “Where is [the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jay] Powell? Where is [the Treasury secretary, Janet] Yellen? Stop this crisis NOW,” tweeted the venture capitalist David Sacks – the same David Sacks who is a friend of Thiel and Musk, and who has previously heavily criticised “special-interest corruption” and bank bailouts. Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Donald Trump supporter that has in the past complained about attempts by the government’s Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate one of his investment funds, performed some spectacular mental gymnastics over the weekend, calling on the FDIC to “guarantee all bank deposits”.

Short article and worth reading imo.

https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfi...rian-tech-bros