Popular Hate For The Current Tech Boom Is Jealousy, Not Injustice

There is undoubtedly a lot of popular hate out there regarding the current tech boom taking place on both coasts, and to some extent now even in places like Boulder, CO and small pockets in the mid west. There is no doubt that technology is hollowing out the middle class, it is destroying jobs, and income inequality is increasing dramatically. There is also no doubt based on the data that this is a boom and has not even entered the same zip code in order to be considered a bubble, every pice of data confirms this.

I want to address what I feel is misrepresented sentiment on the part of many regarding why so many people hate the current technology boom. I know I’ll probably take some flack for this, as it is certainly not a politically correct view, and definitely a mile from being populace in nature.

Let’s get some facts straight. Income inequality is increasing dramatically, the gap between median incomes and what those in the highest percentages are taking home has skyrocketed. The middle class workforce is being hollowed out, real unemployment levels are extremely high when we take into account those that have just wholesale dropped out of the workforce, those working part time jobs, and those that are working jobs which they are educationally overqualified for (arguably). There has never been more student debt in history, and a college degree has never been worth less when it comes to getting a good job, everyone has one. Gentrification of many large costal metropolitan areas is increasing, driving up prices for just about everything including homes in those areas, pricing many people out of certain neighborhoods. Access to higher education has never been greater, there have never been more people enrolled in higher education institutions, specifically from minority and under privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. Our quality of life (access to goods and services per dollar) has never been higher and continues to climb at an amazing rate, and this is taking place across all socioeconomic backgrounds, and is especially important to the lower and middle class as it is progressively important in nature as you go down the latter. The richest of us can access anything anyway, the poorest of us benefit most through increased access per dollar and technological efficiency.

It’s extremely easy to look at increasing income inequality and villainize those at the top or the current system for this disparity, but it’s truly a red herring for what’s actually taking place. No other time in history have more people been able to amass as much wealth as they have now. This is due to globalization, the internet and technological efficiency. Instagram amassed tens of millions of users and was sold for $1B dollars with a team of 10. That’s $100M in market cap per employee. That’s a massive amount of wealth creation in the hands of so few. And when we look at the aggregate income inequality statistics we see the Instagram founder at the top.

But were 1,000,000 other people negatively impacted by his monetary gain? Did the middle class lose out on something because he became wildly rich? Did he take a larger piece of the pie that people feel is fair?

My contention is that the real reason behind the hate of the current tech boom, and the hollowing out of the middle class workforce, is jealousy. People misinterpret the widening gap in income and take that to mean that someone is stealing part of the pie from them, when that could not be further from the truth. There is no zero-sum game involved here, there is no income being “captured” by a smaller percentage, just an enormous amount of wealth being created independently by a few people.

To back up my point, look at the improvement across the board in quality of life and access to goods and services per dollar. Never in history have our lives been so good, and that metric is rising rapidly. We own more things (if that’s what you consider quality of life), we travel more, we have more experiences, we are more educated, and we access more entertainment than ever, even while real wages are declining, unemployment is extremely high, and secure jobs are disappearing.

The hatred is jealousy for how incredibly successful a few people have become due to a system that enables massive wealth creation quickly, and to be honest, in a seemingly random way. And yes, some of it is incredibly random, a kid creates an app that blows up within a year and all of the sudden is worth $100M.

That engenders jealousy, not a true feeling of injustice. Injustice would be if those at the top were stealing a piece of the pie from those at the bottom.

It’s a lot easier to point at income inequality and scream injustice than it is to look at the facts and realize that jealousy is what really drives this anger. I won’t sit here and say that the current system in place is the best for everyone, allowing massive wealth creation for a few in a ver meritocratic, and sometimes random way. It’s not my place to decide what the best system is, but personally I would rather give everyone a chance to get massively wealthy and see quality of life continue to improve quickly for everyone, than have a system where we all work menial secure middle class jobs and progress is made at a slower pace.

I am far more concerned with giving everyone an equal opportunity through the correct education and skills sets than I am with a largely useless measure of income equality.

Don’t confuse jealously for injustice.

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