This book discusses the dilemma of how to avoid too much regulation, or too little regulation, to impact economic growth. In the USA, we see, for instance, that geographic areas such as Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston and New York are growing but at the expense, perhaps, of so-called “rust belt” regions. The author suggests that regulations in the best case might ameliorate this type of “skewed” development. He cites the legislature that Abraham Lincoln got through, more than a century ago, with the establishment of land-grant universities through the so-called Morrill Act (Land-Grant College Act of 1862 of the U.S. Congress that provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in agriculture and the mechanic arts).
Clearly there seems to be an issue here. But how do we handle it? And, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic now more or less behind us, working from home via the internet has become a new reality. This may perhaps hold an important key for a more evenly distributed technology-driven applications too. By the way, before proceeding, we seem to have very analogous issues all over, such as, for instance, regarding London versus North-Midlands, Berlin versus the Ruhr, and so on.
The author, Ro Khanna, represents Silicon Valley in congress. He is a democrat. He studied at University of Chicago, where he obtained a BA in economics, and also a law degree. He also served on the Obama administration.
His book is highly commendable. The book is full of creative proposals to address the unique challenges of the digital age. Mr. Khanna, the son of Indian immigrants, sees the solution to more widely distributed benefits of new technology to be so-called democratic patriotism, where democratic reasoning takes place through “governance by discussion”, to quote John Stuart Mill.
This prompts me to make three brief general observations before delving into the specifics of the book. First, the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine seems to represent a stark contradiction to what the author proposes. Here the dialogue among the NATO partner countries, for instance, seems to have yielded remarkable unity, i.e., in line with what the author suggests. Democracy represents the anti-thesis of aggression! Chapter 10, in particular, seems to deal with this issue. Second, while Mr. Khanna proposes a number of social reforms, quite common for many US democrats, much of his thinking seems to be inspired by what we might find in so-called welfare states, say, in the Nordic countries. Thus, this type of reasoning, particularly as exemplified in chapter 4, represents little to nothing new. Third, the digital age does represent a paradigm shift. And here lays the true strength of the book. Technology can now work for all of us, in this digital age. Mr. Khanna provides many important insights here.
Part one of the book deals with the 21st century economy. Part two shifts towards focusing on major citizenship challenges in this century. Each part consists of five chapters. Let us now review part one first, namely how to expand technology-driven opportunities to the people and places who have been left out of the first wave of the digital revolution. The challenge is to use technology effectively, so as to virtualize local economies, i.e., “equity beyond geography”, as Mr. Khanna writes. The internet is fundamental here, and our freedom on the internet must be protected. This is the anti-thesis of “hacking”.
The virtual workplace is now a reality, and to enhance this further the author proposes nine key issues to enhance this, including strengthening digital education and installing the internet even more broadly.
Racial and gender equality is perhaps becoming even more important now than ever before to enhance this development. Many technology companies need to be restructured, both when it comes to the way they are staffed, as well as when it comes to the way they operate, for instance, say, through more tech partnerships with institutions that serve communities of color. The author discusses seven other aspects of this, such as having access to capital (“opportunity hubs”).
The next chapter, “empowering workers” (chapter four) has already been discussed earlier in this review. To me this seems to be nothing more than a “rehashing” of the Nordic welfare society model. The next chapter (Progressive Capitalism) however, is truly interesting. The author identifies three key conditions for strong enhancement of economic progress, namely, to allow people to take risks without being penalized for failures, to permit people to “think big”, and to not shun the unconventional, i.e., to okay or encourage diversity and fresh ideas! Mr. Khanna points out that a well-developed educational system, good health care, adequate nutrition and a reasonable level of pay are all critical.
Moving now to part two of the book, how to envision what might be the essence of our citizenship in the 21st century, the first chapter deals with our “internet bill of rights”. The author has identified ten key issues here:
We as individuals must be given explicit consent.
We must have full knowledge of data use (ref. the Cambridge Analytica scandal).
We must have the right to delete personal data and abusive content.
There must be adequate data security.
Portability is important.
Openness and accessibility to all is essential.
No unnecessary data collecting!
There should be multiple providers and platforms.
Race, gender, age and religion should not be sources of discrimination.
Legal obligations must be adhered to, say, for banks managing money.
It might be summed up as taking strong stances against anti-democratic factors.
The next chapter deals with censorship disinformation and digital deception, including dealing with fake news, accounts and videos. Protecting children from online addiction is part of this!
So, what is science in a democracy? (Chapter 8). To drop abstract scientific arguments, and instead point out what might be done in specific practical cases is important, say, when it comes to developing a “greener” reality. Solar and wind energy are ready from a scientific point of view, and so is “clean tech”, and electric vehicles. And artificial intelligence is critical here too. But there are still challenges, such as how to cope with 5G mobile telephony, enhancing semi-conductor manufacturing and safe biotech.
Mr. Khanna then moves into a discussion of foreign policy. He stresses that there must be universal democratic values to guide us, in contrast to what we see now with Russia’s attack on Ukraine. But the book was written before this, and a focus on China is central for the author.
The topic of the final chapter, democratic patriotism (chapter 10), has already been commented on. The author stresses that diversity is a blessing when it comes to this. A spirit of civility is key. But a danger of dominance should always be guarded against (“America First”).
After having read this book, I feel strengthened in my assessment that this is a truly great work. As might perhaps be gathered from this review, it is clear that the book spans widely, perhaps even covering too many different topics. But this does not matter. Our clocks need to be reset for the new digital age, an age that includes broad areas. New paradigms are at work, for society, for politics, for business, and for us individuals. This book copes impressively with these fundamental issues. This is a must read, in my opinion.
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