Progressive Capitalism
How to Make Tech Work for All of Us
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
Congressman Ro Khanna offers a revolutionary, “progressive” (James J. Heckman, Nobel Prize winner and professor of economics at the University of Chicago) roadmap to facing America’s digital divide, offering greater economic prosperity to all. In Khanna’s vision, “just as people can move to technology, technology can move to people” (from the foreword by Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics) where “Khanna envisions redistributing opportunities from coastal cities to rural middle-America…An exciting vision, brilliantly rendered.” (Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land).
Unequal access to technology and the revenue it creates is one of the most pressing issues in the United States. An economic gulf exists between those who have struck gold in the tech industry and those left behind by the digital revolution; a geographic divide between those in the coastal tech industry and those in the heartland whose jobs have been automated; and existing inequalities in the technological access—students without computers, rural workers with spotty WiFi, and many workers without the luxury to work remotely.
Congressman Ro Khanna’s Progressive Capitalism tackles these challenges head-on and imagines how the digital economy can create opportunities for people across the country without uprooting them. Anchored by an approach Khanna calls “progressive capitalism,” he shows how democratizing access to tech can strengthen every sector of economy and culture. By expanding technological jobs nationwide through public and private partnerships, we can close the wealth gap in America and begin to repair the fractured, distrusting relationships that have plagued our country for fall too long.
Inspired by his own story born into an immigrant family, Khanna understands how economic opportunity can change the course of a person’s life. Moving deftly between storytelling, policy, and some of the country’s greatest thinkers in political philosophy and economics, Khanna presents a vision we can’t afford to ignore. Progressive Capitalism is a “practical and aspirational” (Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University) roadmap to how we can seek dignity for every American in an era in which technology shapes every aspect of our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
U.S. congressman Khanna, whose California district includes Silicon Valley, debuts with a well-reasoned and articulate plan for reforming the tech industry. Noting that "nearly 50 percent of digital service jobs... are in ten major metro centers," Khanna explains his legislative proposal to create 10 new technology hubs around the country and contends that the wide-scale shift to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic proves that tech jobs can be moved to such regions as eastern Kentucky, where a program called Interapt is offering tech training to supplement the decline in coal mining jobs. Khanna also details the alienating experiences of people of color working in tech and offers tenable approaches to making the industry more diverse, including targeted outreach and training through HBCUs. Elsewhere, he outlines suggestions for an "Internet Bill of Rights" that would protect users' data and increase tech companies' transparency, argues for a reallocation of funds from "bloated defense spending" to protecting against cyberattacks, and calls for wider public participation in government policy. Though he glosses over the steps for achieving some of these reforms, Khanna has a nuanced take on the tech industry and offers genuine solutions to significant problems plaguing the country. This commonsense call for change should win the congressman plenty of new supporters.