Tech industry spent the last year worrying about a startup bubble. This bubble kept investors busy with the discussion for the entire tech sector to be undervalued or not. This bubble mania actually drifted the investor’s thoughts from the actual bubble they were supposed to worry about, the political one.

Donald Trump’s victory as the elected president of United States shook the whole world. Even the tech industry’s leaders were found confused with this surprise. For many of the leaders, it was the worst thing that could have happened. An Uber investor and Hyperloop One cofounder Shervin Pishevar, started preparing to separate California from the union. This is the real political bubble for all the leaders to worry about.

Silicon Valley is not a sector where Trump supporters could be found easily. The newly elected president was not expected to receive votes and only one in five votes went to Trump in Santa Clara country. One in 10 votes went to Trump in San Francisco. In the Silicon Valley it was rare to find any Trump supporter and the one who were in his favor, refused to be identified publically. This is because Donald Trump was expected to ruin the innovation trend for the tech industry. Founders from Facebook and LinkedIn donated million and organized voting campaigns for Hillary Clinton.

But this was something the world did not understand that Trump’s selection can be a disaster for the country. The leaders in tech industry were all trying to figure out ways for stopping him from being selected but he did. He got selected surprisingly leaving the world in complete bewilderment.

Inside the cozy bubble:

But Trump’s selection is more than just a cultural dissonance. Silicon Valley missed out the reality and ignored the people from rural areas to disenfranchised urban cores because of the industry that they have built. According to analysts, people are losing jobs and are more attracted towards learning new technological and automation skills. The tech leaders are considering the new wave of tech-induced jobs as job creation. The introduction of self-driving cars and trucks will definitely create more jobs as more individuals will be required to solve technology related issues. But these won’t be enough as truck driving is still the most common job in 29 states according to 2014 estimates. This would be a wave of job loss with the industry being automated. The truck industry is resistant to globalization as these jobs cannot be transferred to cheaper overseas labor market.

The tech industry’s solution for creating more jobs that are lost due to automation is universal basic income. It is an idea that the government should provide basic necessities of life to the people such as food and shelter. This proves that there is no understanding of the self-respect that is built by working. The solutions, tech industry is hoping for may not prove beneficial.

Waking up to President Trump:

The selection of Donald Trump as the US president has forced Silicon Valley to think outside the bubble. The diversity in companies spreads to political as well as socio-economic diversity. This time should be spent to create solutions for bigger issues. Silicon Valley has more ability rather than wasting time to support seceding from the Union for creating a perfect California Bubble. It needs to be more productive and should find solutions to all problems not just cater to the problems faced by wealthy programmers and marketing professionals in the Valley.

Via: Business Insider