“Solely based on media coverage, you’d think that all of Silicon Valley and the tech world at large was undoubtedly behind Clinton in this critical election. But as has been reported in muted fashion by a few outlets, there is such a thing as the ‘silent majority‘ which is going to surprise many this election,” Derrick Wlodarz writes for BetaNews. ” I’m confident that polls are having a hard time capturing the factor that quantifies this part of the electorate which isn’t being vocal about its Election Day preferences, but will deliver a decisive blow come Tuesday, November 8.”
“I’m a small IT business owner and a decade-long IT pro, and I’m standing with Trump on the issues closest to my heart: technology issues and their related policies,” Wlodarz writes. “From my perspective, if Hillary could not properly handle crucial decision making on critical IT systems handling our nation’s secrets, how would she possibly fare better with such decisions as the leader of the free world? History speaks numbers, and Hillary’s track record with confidential IT platforms is pathetic at best.”
“I’m extremely proud of the fact that I can give jobs to deserving local Americans… As an employer, yes, keeping my payroll full of American-based labor is expensive by every token. I probably could cut labor costs by 1/3 to 1/2 by outsourcing my key positions to H-1B visa holders, or better yet — hiring talent that is based solely overseas. But being a small business owner for some time now has given me considerable satisfaction in the notion that we can make a profit all the while employing local, deserving, and extremely motivated Americans,” Wlodarz writes.
“There is no such thing as the perfect candidate. You’ll never be able to say that the leading candidates check off every box on your mental tally list of policy stances,” Wlodarz writes. ” Yes, he’s said things which are indefensible… [but] I’ve compared, contrasted, and added up the positions which matter most in my eyes, and Trump is the one which stands tall above Clinton on numerous policies — most importantly, tech policy which is near and dear to me both personally and professionally.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again: Blessedly, the race for 2016 is almost over! (Even as the race for 2020 has already begun.)
SEE ALSO:
Silicon Valley donated 60 times more to Clinton than to Trump – November 7, 2016
Trump’s corporate tax-cut pitch falls flat in Silicon Valley – August 24, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook and the rest of Silicon Valley throw big money at Clinton and pretty much bupkis at Trump – August 23, 2016
Apple App Store rejects satirical Hillary Clinton game, despite offering dozens of anti-Trump games – July 27, 2016
Donald Trump’s most unlikely supporter: Silicon Valley billionaire Pete Thiel – July 21, 2016
Tech investor Peter Thiel’s embrace of Donald Trump for U.S. President has Silicon Valley squirming – July 20, 2016
An open letter from Apple co-founder Woz, other techies on Donald Trump’s candidacy for U.S. President – July 14, 2016
Activist campaign seeks to shame Apple, other U.S. companies over Trump – June 24, 2016
Apple refuses to aid 2016 GOP presidential convention over Trump comments – June 18, 2016
Apple and Silicon Valley employees love Bernie Sanders. Donald Trump? Not so much – May 6, 2016
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers far too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Yet another story NOT about Apple. Jeez.
And a guy who has an IT business is different than a leader of a big Silicon Valley company.
For Silicon Valley and Apple’s Tim Cook, it’s all about H-1B visas and cheap labor – see below). Even though Cook agrees more with Republicans than Democrats on corporate taxation and other issues, he cuts off his nose to spite his face.
Tim, it’d be cheaper to pay American workers a fair wage and get a sound corporate tax policy than it would be to continue importing cheap foreign labor on H-1B visas and be stuck with Democrats who love to overtax and tax the wrong things which stifles the economy overall (hurting the business of selling consumer goods, including electronics, by the way).
American companies and their shareholders, in general, want skilled labor as CHEAPLY as possible. That’s a main reason why Tim Cook, Apple and other tech firms are not supporting Trump – they want unlimited H-1Bs, so they can pay Ajeet from India half what they’d have to pay Tom from Tulsa who can’t find a job after graduating from college and has to live in his parents basement because Apple got Ajeet from India to do it on the CHEAP.
H1-B visas for skilled workers DO NOT EQUAL uneducated illegal aliens streaming across the southern border intent on cashing in on American taxpayer’s largesse while setting up shop in the domestic drug trade and/or other crimes (gangs, rape, robbery, etc.).
Trump is for upholding the laws already on the books designed to protect our borders and our nation’s sovereignty.
Since you keep copy/pasting the same message over and over (clear sign of fanaticism: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, let me copy/past mine from yesterday:
I think many more people would vote for the candidate with that platform than for the current candidate Trump; what he says at rallies, and what is in his official policy are substantially different things. And the main problem for quite many undecided American voters is, which Trump are they voting for? The one they hear at rallies, in tweets, interviews on TV and other appearances, or the one represented by the official positions as outlined on his website (and drafted by his political advisers)?
Because the Trump from that text above sounds like a proper, no-nonsense Republican; the one from TV sounds like an idiot.
Perfect assessment. The candidate on paper is a somewhat reasonable guy with positions I don’t happen to agree with. The candidate himself, however, is a #WhinyLittleBitch.
It’s not about whiny. It’s about the undeniable fact that most of his strongest assertions would harm the tech industry. That’s why Silicon Valley is contributing to Hillary over Trump by a factor of SIXTY TO ONE.
When asked about what the biggest challenge tech firms face in achieving success, the most common answer is federal red tape making it impractical to hire international candidates. Trump has promised to double down on this problem and exacerbate it. A Trump America will be the home of employers of last resort for the smartest people in the world.
It’s all just a giant spectacle now for TV ratings. The very precipice to Idiocracy.
I’m just ready to laugh at whatever “First 2014, Then 2016” changes their name to next. I offer a few suggestions:
Lost 2016, Maybe 2020
Won 2016, wait, we won?! Uh, now what?
First Republican, Then foraging though post apocalyptic wasteland formerly known as the United States
That Orange Yo-Yo Shit just keeps hitting the fan.
First 2014, Now 2016.
🙂
Boom!
This is about a set of reasons why the tech industry needs people with the ability to buy their products.
The average working stiff in this country wants an iPhone.
The only way a lot of stiffs can get one is if they have more disposable income. Yet the employment as a % of adults and average wage and family net worth have been plunging in the last decade. There was an average 2% drop in US wages in the first 7-8 months of 2016.
The existing business paradigm set by the government has resulted in anti-business policies which has driven the employment and wage rates down.
People vote their pocketbook.
The companies that have moved jobs overseas won’t bring them back. They’ll look for somewhere else to put them that keeps their costs at or below where they are now.
True for big companies, Scott.
But I am doing a startup. Everything has to be local for best control, time to ship and volume adjustments.
Small startups create most of the new business in the US, not mega-F-500 companies. Hence, government ought to be encouraging startups.
I think that depends on what your product is. I know a guy who does software and they are all over the country and a couple folks in Europe.
And … the software runs on what? With what accessories?
A majority of the innovation in newer products occurs outside the Fortune 500.
Robotics will shortly allow Apple to economically build iPhones in the US, or anywhere else it decides to. However, while the products will be built in those particular countries, the number of jobs generated will be rather small.
Tim Cook mentioned in an interview that even if Apple wanted to move manufacturing back to the US, they can’t because there aren’t enough engineers in the US available.
With a huge investment in time and money, Apple could conceivably move a substantial amount of its product assembly to the U.S. The increasing amount of automation used in the assembly process would help to mitigate the wage difference because there are fewer labor hours per unit.
What Apple cannot do is bring it component supply chains to the U.S. Most of the components would still be sourced from Japan, China, etc.
When people use the generic term “manufacturing,” it is important to understand what they really mean.
Apple can’t continue over the long term making everything in China.
Danox, you are the first person to say that publicly!
China has been tightening the thumbscrews on foreign companies for a long time. Apple and other companies realize they are going to have to diversify out of China which is partly behind Cooks work in India to start manufacturing there.
Some people have questioned eventual manufacturing in the US even with automation. What people forget is plans for these things go out 10+ years.
Technology is shrinking not only the number, but the size of components and evolution itself is reducing the # of components as shown by the elimination of a separate audio jack.
It would not be surprising to see an automated final assembly in the US for iPhones in 5 years.
Excuses see Germany…Unions and Engineers…
Is this the same Cook who always says how excited he is with his product pipeline but has spent the last 6 years dribbling out incremental fashion-first releases. Predictable slow late overpriced fashion aimed at novices who compute with emojis instead of mathematics and who are dumb enough to trust the iCloud. This is not the user focused company Apple used to be.
The single biggest reason any company continues to manufacture outside of the USA comes down to:
SELLING PRICE of their products.
It would be interesting to investigate the engineers question. But it ends up being a red herring.
That’s not what he said. Engineers don’t do manufacturing.
What a seriously stupid article to post here. [sigh]
Boo. Bad judgement, MDN.
My question is: Why are all the moderate, reasonable Republicans silent while this extremist spreads hate and threatens the legitimacy of our democracy? Are these not the same people who decry the silence of the Moderate Muslims who fail to denounce extremists in their religion? Moderate GOPers can denounce Trump without fear of death and yet they still cower.
I’m so ready for this election to be over. This country has some serious healing to do once the confetti has been swept up.
I think for them, this is mostly like voting between Hitler and Stalin. And many of them end up rationalising their vote for Stalin as lesser of two evils.
If we eliminate all the campaign talk and try to assess objectively, Clinton presidency will be pretty much a continuation of the Obama presidency. And the bottom line of the Obama presidency is still a net positive. Seven years of straight economic growth, halving the unemployment rate, highest rate of private sector employment, highest number of deportations of illegal aliens (of any president so far), significant reduction of federal budget deficit, lowest rate of growth of federal spending since Eisenhower, lowest dependency on foreign oil, lowest taxes for 95% of Americans, highers number of Americans with health insurance, fewest number of American servicemen in combat overseas…
In other words, it isn’t all bad news; it could have been a whole lot worse…
You lose, liar.
Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States.
The Republic is saved.
This is not about Apple. It’s a pure political piece without any meaningful technology angle. Can MDN stay focused on Apple news please? Geez, if we’re going to read poorly-reasoned politically-motivated emotionally-laden junk, let’s get back to those silly Apple analysts and the trash-talking Apple competitors. That at least is entertaining.
Do you like working for no money? As a business owner I could never vote for a candidate who sets a precedent for stiffing contractors. It would just truly send the wrong message.
Basically, for a tech site, the answer should come down to this: does the candidate you back believe in science or not. It’s that simple. Do they believe in evidence or do they believe in “feelings.”
Trump doesn’t believe in climate change (much as Green Party’s Jill Stein doesn’t believe in vaccines). When it comes to judging politicians from a tech point of view, that’s all I need to know.
Excellent point. Science rules!
When anyone makes a statement that a particular scientific question the answer to which cannot be demonstrated by repeatable experiment under controlled conditions – e.g., “anthropogenic climate change,” – is “settled science,” then I know something about that person.
They know nothing about science.
Glad he doesn’t believe in man made climate change.
Climate change is very real and its been going on for 100’s of millions of years. Long before man had any influence.
We are in fact currently in an interglacial warming period of an ice age! Competent science knows this.
Man made climate change is a hoax, a fraud, a racket. Its criminal !
Go visit your local museum of natural history to learn the facts about this topic. They know its false !
Is that election still going? Good, the longer the better, they never invade during an election. Hope it lasts the decade.
not american, but a small part of me hope he wins so the rest of the world will ostracize the US even more.. fascism is a suit, or a toupee.. no real difference.
I don’t see how anyone can reasonably argue against raising H-1B wages to prevailing U.S. rates. It makes no sense. By its nature currently, H-1B allows (really it incentivizes) companies to look somewhere other than the U.S. for those type of workers. It allows them lower costs without the expense of overseas infrastructure needed to support those workers where they come from.
I don’t have a problem with the reality that some companies have overseas situations because the cost of producing something is lower than here. It’s perfect business sense.
But… the H-1B situation is absurd. It gives them the benefit of lower wage costs… tied to the benefit of having local workers. Obviously, there is a (monetary) benefit to having those workers locally, otherwise they wouldn’t be here.
As it stands now, companies with H-1B workers are getting to have their cake and eat it too.
Neither candidate knows jack about IT.
They’ll both be relying on others to help steer policy.
Yeah- I’m sure Trump the actual person, vs. the persona reflected in his website policies drafted by his political advisors, is going to institute those tech-friendly policies should he (doubtfully) get elected.😐
For Jobs’ sake- he doesn’t even USE a computer!!
Loser Trump tweeted from an android phone — at least, he did until his handlers took it away from him. End of story.
Clinton on the other hand entrusted her assistants to manage email, and they screwed up. With all the scrutiny they’ve gotten, you can bet they won’t be making any email errors in the future. That’s something you can’t say for serial asshat Trump, who loves to double down on strategic errors.
These should be Taboo subjects on MDN.
1. Religion
2. Politics
Let’s just stick to the tech.
Trump is to stupid to know anything about tech. He doesn’t even know the constitution. And he is a flat out liar in your face. So how could you even trust anything he says.
I think it is worse to know the constitution and yet create executive orders to countermand it. That is NO law at all.
Good point. Good point at BOTH Republicans and Democrats in the Oval Office. That’s one reason I find both parties to be worthless and disgusting.
“too” stupid.
A big question of course, one that is repeatedly asked with every statement he makes, is:
Does Trump Know What He’s Taking About?
Considering the consistent vagary of Trump’s statements, I can make no other conclusion than: NO. He’s a con man, and a lazy con man at that. He says what people want to hear. Knowing facts is irrelevant within his method of communication.
[But of course shout me down. BFD. Watch the future and witness my being correct in this insight. I only point out this stuff in order to help others observe and understand. My ego has far better concerns than public acclaim, if you haven’t noticed.]
… Talking About?
Head = Tired from #WorstElectionEver