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First off, I won't be voting in the upcoming US primary or general election. It seems that they have a rule against Canadian citizens voting in their elections. However, it doesn't mean that I am not fascinated by the overall spectacle of the US election process. It may be the best reality show on TV.
I have been doing some research on the different candidate's support base and something struck me....I think the average Trump supporter might not like me and some may in fact outright hate me.
Why, might you ask?
I doubt they have anything against me personally, but I think they would hate what my company does (and what I have been doing for close to 2 decades) and that is selling solutions that have helped accelerate their economic downfall.
You see, the average Trump supporter's profile is one that has (and will be) disproportionately affected by IoT / Big Data / AI-oriented solutions. They have seen the biggest drop in their standard of living, have been hit hard by job losses in economic downturns and have had the hardest time replacing a lost job with a comparable one.
Here is the average Trump supporter's profile:
1. They are mostly male.
\nMales suffered more job losses in the 2008-2009 downturn and have been heavily hit by the loss in well-paying manufacturing jobs. Sure, global competition has added to these losses, but robotics / data optimization have replaced many workers as well.
2. They are middle to lower class.
\nThe majority of his base makes lower than $50,000 annually....another group that has seen huge amounts of workers replaced by technology.
3. They didn't go to college.
\nThe majority of his supporters are not in many of the white-collared jobs that have been harder to replace with technology solutions to date.
What is interesting is that Trump has chosen to attack only one of the main two reasons why his base has not done well financially over the past 2-3 decades. He is going after trade agreements. Sure, global competition/trade hasn't helped the average blue-collar worker's chances of maintaining a high-paying manual labour role, but it isn't the only reason.
Curiously, Trump has not gone after an equally oppressive force to his base....technology. He hasn't gone after manufacturers of robotics/AI who are replacing factory workers at a huge rate. He has not gone after the creators of software/intelligence platforms that are attacking many traditional entry level white collar workers' positions, such as banking tellers and insurance analysts. Finally, he has not gone after companies like Novotech, whose solutions have allowed companies to increase productivity, sometimes at the cost of new jobs being created.
Why is this? Well, it would be suicide for him to attack his base.
It might not play well with the traditional Republican base to go after some of the largest companies on the planet, as well as all of the bankers/investors who have made investments in them. However, Trump is proving to be non-traditional, so maybe we are a target after all?
The Bottom Line
I don't think the goal of anyone involved in the IoT world is to specially target a group of people's livelihood. Our goal is to allow for better gathering of information and better decisions to be made. This will reduce greenhouse gases, improve our health care system and improve our overall life. It will, unfortunately, come at the cost of some jobs, but hopefully will create new jobs in some exciting new areas.
The average Trump supporter is going to be affected by what we do more than most. To help ease this burden, we need to do a better job creating new roles at a faster clip. Otherwise, we may be Trump's next target of attack.
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