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The return of the techno-libertarians
Silicon Valley billionaires are selling a dream of unfettered markets – but the reality is not so certain.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US President-elect Donald Trump on their way to attend a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Texas on Nov 19.
PHOTO: AFP
Rana Foroohar
Donald Trump’s victory represents many world-changing things. One is the marriage of techno-determinism and libertarianism. In the world of this new administration, the line between Mr Milton Friedman and tech billionaires such as Mr Elon Musk, Mr Peter Thiel, Mr Marc Andreessen and Mr Mark Zuckerberg blurs into a philosophy that aims to end all constraints on markets.
Trump’s band of techno-libertarian “volunteers” – as Mr Musk rather disingenuously put it, given Tesla and SpaceX get more federal funding than National Public Radio – believe that they should be left alone to get on with dismantling the apparatus of the state in service to efficiency-building and profit-making. The latter goal has already been achieved, at least for the Silicon Valley crowd – artificial intelligence, crypto and any business attached to Mr Musk have soared in value since the election.
