{"id":17349,"date":"2025-01-18T06:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/18\/the-tech-bros-have-front-row-seats-at-trumps-inauguration-but-what-they-want-goes-way-beyond-that-quinn-slobodian\/"},"modified":"2025-01-18T06:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:37:21","slug":"the-tech-bros-have-front-row-seats-at-trumps-inauguration-but-what-they-want-goes-way-beyond-that-quinn-slobodian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/18\/the-tech-bros-have-front-row-seats-at-trumps-inauguration-but-what-they-want-goes-way-beyond-that-quinn-slobodian\/","title":{"rendered":"The tech bros have front-row seats at Trump\u2019s inauguration, but what they want goes way beyond that | Quinn Slobodian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The convergence of money and politics isn\u2019t new. What\u2019s different is the Silicon Valley right\u2019s hostility<strong> <\/strong>to the nation state<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Quinn Slobodian is author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the last speech of his presidency, Joe Biden described the United States the way he usually only describes the nation\u2019s adversaries: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jan\/15\/joe-biden-farewell-address-trump-oligarchy-america\">as an oligarchy<\/a>. His fears about \u201cthe dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people\u201d came after weeks of discussion of the influence of the mega-rich on the incoming Trump administration. At least 13 billionaires are set to have government posts under the new president, with his expected cabinet worth at least $7bn, double that of his own first term and an astonishing <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles\/story?id=116872968\">60 times more<\/a> than the net worth of the current one. Tallying in Trump\u2019s close adviser, Elon Musk, bloats the figure to over a half trillion. Wealth and power have long had a happy marriage in America. What\u2019s different now? It can be captured in three terms: scale, sector and strategy.<\/p>\n<p>One thing about billionaires in the US is they keep making more of them. In 1990, there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/220093\/number-of-billionaires-in-the-united-states\/\">about 60<\/a>. Ten years later, there were 298. Today there are almost 750, enough to fill a pair of jumbo jets (assuming some could be persuaded to travel in economy). Billionaire status is no longer enough to make you a household name. Those with the Scrooge McDuck or John D Rockefeller status of people \u201cso rich they are famous for being rich\u201d are more properly identified as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/apr\/06\/centibillionaire-wealthy-family-richest-fintech\">centibillionaires<\/a>: people worth more than $100bn.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn Slobodian is the author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/jan\/18\/tech-bros-trump-inauguration-silicon-valley-nation-state\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2f2abef83ad61b058ad5c5f92ae47ccf64efbb7f\/0_0_5088_3053\/master\/5088.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=a8a6fca261c3f1b5d16eea4c788307e7\" title=\"The tech bros have front-row seats at Trump\u2019s inauguration, but what they want goes way beyond that | Quinn Slobodian\" \/>The convergence of money and politics isn\u2019t new. What\u2019s different is the Silicon Valley right\u2019s hostility to the nation state<br \/>\nQuinn Slobodian is author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy<br \/>\nIn the last speech of his presidency, Joe Biden described the United States the way he usually only describes the nation\u2019s adversaries: as an oligarchy. His fears about \u201cthe dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people\u201d came after weeks of discussion of the influence of the mega-rich on the incoming Trump administration. At least 13 billionaires are set to have government posts under the new president, with his expected cabinet worth at least $7bn, double that of his own first term and an astonishing 60 times more than the net worth of the current one. Tallying in Trump\u2019s close adviser, Elon Musk, bloats the figure to over a half trillion. Wealth and power have long had a happy marriage in America. What\u2019s different now? It can be captured in three terms: scale, sector and strategy.<br \/>\nOne thing about billionaires in the US is they keep making more of them. In 1990, there were about 60. Ten years later, there were 298. Today there are almost 750, enough to fill a pair of jumbo jets (assuming some could be persuaded to travel in economy). Billionaire status is no longer enough to make you a household name. Those with the Scrooge McDuck or John D Rockefeller status of people \u201cso rich they are famous for being rich\u201d are more properly identified as centibillionaires: people worth more than $100bn.<br \/>\nQuinn Slobodian is the author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The convergence of money and politics isn\u2019t new. What\u2019s different is the Silicon Valley right\u2019s hostility to the nation state Quinn Slobodian is author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy In the last speech of his presidency, Joe Biden described the United States the way he usually only &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/18\/the-tech-bros-have-front-row-seats-at-trumps-inauguration-but-what-they-want-goes-way-beyond-that-quinn-slobodian\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The tech bros have front-row seats at Trump\u2019s inauguration, but what they want goes way beyond that | Quinn Slobodian<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17349"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}