Ask HN: How can tech companies promote a socially liberal government

5 points by thro1237 9 years ago | 9 comments

Tech companies in general are supportive of socially liberal policies (Abortion rights, LGBT rights, etc). How can they promote such views in the government? One way I can think of is to open more offices in swing states. As their employees tend to be more socially liberal, this will help elect more liberal candidates in the government? Any other ideas?

joeclark77 9 years ago |

IMHO the pretension by coastal billionaires that they are the "elites" who know what's good for us better than we do ourselves, is part of what the people on Twitter are calling #HowYouGotTrump. Google, for example, usually does one of their cute special-edition homepage graphics on every obscure Muslim holiday and the birthdays of famous Communists, but rarely ever celebrates Independence Day or Easter. Nice way to show how much contempt you have for a large segment of your customers, Google!

I would suggest that founders be a bit more respectful of their employees' and customers' diverse opinions. If you treat people with respect, they might just be willing to listen to what you have to say.

lordCarbonFiber 9 years ago |

History lesson: due to a law passed in 1929[0] the size of the House of Representatives is capped. Because states can't have less than one house member this means a vote in the midwest can be worth up to 3x a vote on the coast. Further compounding this issue, a state's electoral college vote count is equal to it's total congress members (2 senate + house) so that swings the pendulum even further toward the low population states.

This is how, in 2016, despite more actual people voting democrat in the president, house, and senate races, the party lost control of all three. [1]

Allow the total members in the house to expand so all districts have more equal members, and we can finally stop bending over backwards for a minority of citizens who insist we stay socially and economically in the 1950s.

[0]http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The... [1]http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/...

PaulHoule 9 years ago |

Note your definition of socially liberal does not mention anything having to do with economic inequality, how do you feel about that?

The "locate offices in the swing states" answer is about the only one that can work given the structure of voting at a national level. Economic despair, desperation, drug addiction and all that in the heartland caused by Adam Smith "liberal" policies drive people to vote Republican as the Democrats don't offer an alternative. That's what's the matter with Kansas.

Also any kind of "brain drain" from the middle of the country to New York and California disempowers those who move politically. The tech industry has to stop siding with Comcast and Verizon and stop making excuses against rolling our sleeves up and getting rural broadband in.

lordCarbonFiber 9 years ago | |

I feel like you haven't spent much time in rural America. As someone who grew up in South Carolina, it's not someplace you want to be. No one opens offices in the heartland because the cheap land doesn't offset the difficulty in attracting talent (at least for software where office costs even in SF or NYC are dwarfed by personal costs). Intelligent people want to congregate, and the regressive policies of the American south and midwest (anti lgbt, anti women's rights, rampant racism, religious cultism, and strong currents of anti-intellectualism) give people no reason to reject the call to shinnier shores. At this point the only thing that can save these communities are universal basic income and you know the republicans they insist on electing won't provide that.

Repeal the House member cap passed in 1912 and let the representatives actually proportionally represent the population (and the Electoral college too) and all of the social issues caused by a gross minority of backwater states goes away.

fosco 9 years ago |

Create a Corporate Congress. businesses have ideals and values, and often are forced to support the majority because it is the majority that is spending their money at that business and giving them power in the first place. with all of the downsides of a corporate congress, I see this happening especially with more deregulation [0] occuring... there is an opportunity growing for corporations to step in and lead the way. Encourage people to spend money at companies who values they support.

[0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/30/presi...

informatimago 9 years ago |

Companies should not promote any such view in the government.

The government is by the people for the people. Only human beings should have any voice in the government affairs, and since we're assumedly in a democracy, with one man one voice!

Therefore companies meddling with government affairs and lobbying should be disbanded immediately.

stephancoral 9 years ago | |

But people...run corporations! And since we live in a country has decided that corporations are persons and have rights to free speech and participation in the political realm, why not use this privilege to advance civil rights?

orange_county 9 years ago |

Companies can start lobbying and donating money to politicians who align their views with theirs.

That's how it is usually done.

spcelzrd 9 years ago |

Directly support candidates and political parties that reflect their views.

There are two parties in the US: Fascist and anti-Fascist. The anti-Fascists are doing a sorry, spineless job. But at least they're not writing bigoted laws.