Horowitz: Tech lobbying failed due to arrogance and Democratic partisanship
Ben Horowitz · Politics & the Future of Tech · Apr 2, 2024 · at 19:24
Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, explains why tech industry lobbying in Washington D.C. has historically yielded poor results despite heavy spending.
0:00 / 1:50
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I think there are like a few kind of important issues around that. One is, you know, really arrogance in that I think, you know, we in tech and a lot of the people who went in are like, oh, we're the good guys. We're for the good and everybody will love us when we get there and we can just push our agenda on, you know, kind of on the policymakers without really putting in the time and the work to understand the issues and the things that, you know, you face as somebody in Congress or somebody in the White House in trying to figure out what the right policy is... And the second one is I think that you know, they've been partisan where like it's been like, Not necessary or not even smart to be partisan, so people have come in with whatever, like, political bent, mostly kind of Democrat Democratic Party that they have, and like, okay, we're gonna go in without understanding you and only work with Democrats”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ben Horowitz
Horowitz: Donald Trump is the right choice for startups and Little Tech
“For a little tech we think Donald Trump is actually the right choice”
Horowitz: Big Tech's startup cloud deals involve illegal roundtripping accounting
“The big tech companies have done this thing which we thought was illegal because we observed it occur at AOL and people went to jail, but what they've done is they invest in startups, you know, huge amounts of money. Microsoft and Amazon and Google are all doi…”
Horowitz: Google and Microsoft push for centralized Chinese-style AI control
“Like we go to the China model that Google and Microsoft are advocating for this Chinese model of only a few can control AI. We're going to be in big trouble.”
Horowitz: Scientists absolutely knew COVID-19 originated from a lab leak
“The lab leak was a great example of that. The, you know, people absolutely knew as a lab leak, the scientists absolutely knew as a lab leak, but for the greater good we're going to say it was not.”