They may not say so explicitly, but most tech-state companies (although not all of them) treat their workers like throw-away commodities. At companies like Amazon, some workers stay on the clock continuously to the point that they have no bathroom breaks. The company recently admitted that workers sometimes “urinate in water bottles” (Pocan, 2021) while they are out and about delivering packages. The workers are numb to the mistreatment because they are grateful to have a job, which, as an Amazon warehouse worker noted, is essential in order to put food on the table (Matsakis, 2020).
Tech-state companies often use the loophole of utilizing “contractors” to avoid paying people full benefits. In 2018, Google's contract workers outnumbered direct employees for the first time in the company's 20-year history. In San Mateo and Santa Clara counties alone, where most tech-states have headquarters, there are an estimated 39,000 workers who are contracted to tech companies, according to one estimate by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (Sheng, 2018).
Repetitive stress injuries are an epidemic but are rarely reported. These include carpal tunnel syndrome or pain in the wrists, thumbs, hands, or forearms. Sometimes it's the overexertion injuries, which happen because heavy lifting on the job can cause neck and lower back pain. In 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited a New Jersey Amazon warehouse for exposing workers to risk factors that included stress from continuous bending and repetitious exertions and prolonged standing during long shifts (Schibell & Mennie LLC, 2021).
These people are viewed as expendable. After all, tech-state knows that when one person leaves, there are plenty of people knocking at the door looking to do that same job.
As another example of tech-state companies keeping their workers down, Amazon has vehemently opposed its workers unionizing. Amazon's relentless push to beat back a union drive among warehouse workers mirrors the company's past efforts to oppose unions in Seattle, New York, Canada, and the United Kingdom (Greene, 2021). A unified voice could give workers power, which the company likely sees as a threat. Some companies have even been rumored to have gone as far as blacklisting and firing people who engaged in unionizing behavior that is deemed unacceptable.
Borrowing a page from the scare tactics used in the construction industry, in 2009 the union “Unite in the UK” took a case to the High Court after names were found in a file compiled by the Consulting Association, which was raided. More than 3,000 people were on the blacklist, often for being a union member or for raising safety issues (BBC News, 2009). This intimidation in construction or tech thwarts any internal attempts at organizing the workers within the company.
Tech-state companies may not always treat their workers well, but they do take good care of their users and shareholders. “Users” are the customers who pay for the product. “Customer is king,” they say. They know that without the customer they have no company. That's why they care. Shareholders are the investors and other entities who own a stake in the company. They care about shareholders, because without them they have no investment to grow the company. If only they applied this same thinking to their employees and to our planet, the world would be a better place. Because a dead planet is not a good place to run a business.
Money and Power in Politics
Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other companies like them spend a lot of money on lobbying, political donations, and other forms of cozying up to political leaders, to the point that those tasked with keeping them in check are held hostage by the donations from the founders and the companies themselves.
For these companies, it starts with money, which gives them power, which buys them political leaders via donations and other forms of lobbying. This leads to control and influence over the government, which makes it very difficult to pass any meaningful regulation that would keep these companies in check.
Eight men have the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report published by Oxfam that marks the annual meeting of political and business leaders in Davos (Oxfam America, 2017). The report, “An economy for the 99 percent,” shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had been feared. It details how big business and the super-rich are fueling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages, and using their power to influence politics to their advantage.
In places where tech-states have not been able to buy their way into the political system, they will sometimes threaten to leave the region when there are attempts to regulate them. Because of these companies' outsized ability to create jobs and provide services, they still wield a lot of power.
As an example, Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla headquarters out of California at the beginning of 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. In fact, Tesla ended up suing state authorities over lockdown after the Fremont factory was stopped from reopening (Reuters, 2020). Keep in mind that these regulations applied to everyone and every company, big and small. Tesla sued local authorities in California and pushed to reopen its factory. They threatened to move the company's headquarters to Texas or Nevada, where regulators are looser. Tesla did end up moving to Texas. At the end of 2020, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that he had moved to Texas and was rapidly relocating his California-based business empire to the Lone Star State. With a new Tesla factory under construction and two increasingly busy SpaceX facilities in the state, it was not unexpected news (Cao, 2020)
Another example happened in 2019, when Amazon canceled its plans to build its second headquarters in New York after battling with activists and union leaders (Goodman, 2019).
It's becoming increasingly difficult for legislators to regulate any tech-state companies, because of their sheer oversized influence. It's not hyperbole to say that, as of this writing, a handful of tech-state companies are in control, and not the nation-state or government. Here are some examples to back up this statement:
In 2018, the European Parliament summoned Mark Zuckerberg as the CEO of Facebook to testify in a parliamentary hearing. He was a no-show. At the time of the hearing, the committee shared a now infamous picture of the empty seat and nameplate, stating: “Nine countries. 24 official representatives. 447 million people represented. One question: where is Mark Zuckerberg?” Not much they could do about it!
In 2021, tech-state companies acted unilaterally and censored the president of the United States and many of his influential followers. Hate him or love him and what he stands for, he was still the president of the most powerful country in the world. Think about that.
Of course, incitement to violence is a criminal offense in all liberal democracies around the world. There is an obvious reason for this: violence is harmful. It harms those who are immediately targeted. Five people died in the riots of January 6, 2021, in Washington DC. “A police officer was beaten, a rioter was shot, and three others died during the rampage” (Healy, 2021). Violence also harms the institutions of democracy themselves, which rely on elections rather than civil wars and on a peaceful transfer of power.
To be fair to the tech-state, there is no doubt the former president was given considerable leeway in his public commentary prior to—and during the course of—his presidency. However, he crossed a line into stoking imminent lawlessness and violence. Thus, many could argue that he brought it on himself. We all agree that we need to improve social media, but the tougher question is how we tackle misinformation while also valuing freedom of expression.
The point still remains. A single individual at certain companies can censor whomever they want! That's the outsized power I am talking about.
The Exponential Nature of Tech
Nation-states