“Silicon Valley is a microcosm of the excesses of capitalism”

She is “technicians” From Silicon Valley still having doubts about their image in the rest of the country, they stepped up. Outside of Palo Alto, Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) woes have not drawn much sympathy. All weekend, social networks rang with the sarcasm of Internet users toward an environment that generally cares little about the collateral damage of its innovations. “ I sell private planes »advised one of them.

The collapse of the SVB bank was greeted with cynicism comparable to libertarian disdain. “big government”. Venture capitalists like Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman are issuing warnings, doomsday scenarios, and arguing that national security is at stake and that, as the ultimate bogeyman, China will take advantage of the situation. Depriving the United States of the following Google and. SpaceX, nothing has shaken the wall of hostility. “And now they want help from the government?” I’m laughing “He meant another comment.

Inequalities are widening

Time does not allow tears to be shed over technique. The sector benefited a lot from the pandemic, it is struggling to return to reality. From the spring of 2022, the industry had to lay off 200,000 employees – 10,000 in the valley alone. Scandals are piling up. The latest: the bankruptcy of the FTX cryptocurrency platform.

First of all, inequality is widening. According to the annual report of the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Institute, published on February 17, the gap between the rich and the poor will widen further in 2021 in the technology capital (by 5%), while in the rest of the country it will decrease (by 3%). %). A 120 square kilometer enclave south of San Francisco, the Valley is home to 85 billionaires and 163,000 millionaires. In 2022, 10% of the population owned 66% of the region’s total wealth. Richest 1%: 36% of resources.

Just eight ratepayers account for more than 500,000 residents, or half of the region’s homes. Seven of these very large fortunes come from technology: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, Eric Schmidt, the search engine’s longtime CEO; Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook; Jensen Huang, of Nvidia; Jan Kum, creator of WhatsApp; and Lauren Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs. The eighth is Charles Schwab, the founder of the financial giant that bears his name.