Why Silicon Valley tech workers lean socialist

Heartland Institute research director Edward Hudgins speaks with experienced Silicon Valley free market advocate Patrick Peterson on the Heartland Daily Podcast. Peterson purports that local tech employees often support socialist economic policies because their high salaries shield them from the brunt of our fiscal crises. Many innovators in tech are optimistic, creative, and openminded—but they struggle to see the “big picture” of free market principles beyond their limited personal experiences.

(0:31–1:12)

Edward Hudgins: I argue that an exponential technology revolution is shaping a future for us of unparalleled prosperity, health, and longevity. To usher in this future… we need to engage with the innovators who are leading this revolution but who too often buy into leftist and statist economic and regulatory policies that, in fact, would snuff out such a revolution.

(43:29–44:20)

Patrick Peterson: Well, definitely, [tech workers] have to think about [socialist policies not working well in the Bay Area] because the costs are becoming so high…

When [companies] pay new engineers $120,000 to $200,000-some, and those engineers cannot afford to buy a house, something is wrong. And they are looking at other places, they’re subsidizing some housing, they are giving money to some of the cities and this and that.

But they, for some reason, have not gotten behind basic free market ideas of lowering taxes, lowering the regulation costs, getting rid of some of the restrictive zoning issues, building codes…

(24:11–25:37)

PP: Some of the [tech workers] are so wealthy. They’ve already made their amount that they think is good, that they don’t understand that the start-up process requires the ability to start with virtually nothing or have laws that are not stifling at a very low level. And so, they put up more barriers like minimum wages. Too many of the companies actually support high minimum wages. And they’re starting to support things like universal benefits—

EH: Healthcare, for example.

PP: healthcare, and Medicare for All, and things like that… And they don’t seem to understand that the taxes will hurt them eventually, if it doesn’t hurt them too much immediately. But it just stifles the next people.

And maybe that’s partly why they don’t mind taxes and regulations is because they’ve got theirs already, to some extent, the higher-level people. And they don’t really care too much about the poorer folks or the middle class that are still trying to improve their situation and need the open market, the free market, as opposed to these controls and taxes and regulations and things.

(33:56–34:18)

PP: They do complain on the one hand [about restrictive laws], but then they actually want more of them on the other hand. They didn’t seem to fight it off, this law that was passed last year in California, AB 5, which cut out independent contractor status for the Uber, Lyft, Doordash people…

(35:15–35:21)

PP: I think, it’s probably like, they’re so focused on their own jobs, generally, that they just don’t look at the big picture of what’s happening.

This interview originally appeared in the Heartland Daily Podcast. Listen to the whole thing here.

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