Is innovation the highest goal? In other words, if innovation suffers, but democracy wins,

is that so bad? I'm Bethany McLean. Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism

and whether greed's a good idea? And I'm Luigi Zengalis. We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

And this is Capital Isn't, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.

First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?

And most importantly, what isn't?

We ought to do better by the people to get left behind.

I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process. I think we all know intuitively

that big tech is not benign. From the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal of 2016, to the growing

evidence per episode with Jonathan Haight, that tech companies are deliberately and knowingly hurting

our children so they can increase their profits.

Well, everyone can cite an example of where big tech has gone wrong.

And that's even before they really unleash AI on us.

In a new book, The Tech Coup, How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley, Dutch politician

turned international policy director and fellow

at several Stanford institutions, Marica Schacher, tells the story of how Silicon Valley has cultivated

a hands-off approach to regulation, rely on a combination of idealism, which was perhaps

at one point genuine, libertarian beliefs, which always ignore the role that government money has played in fostering the growth of new technologies, and ignorance on the part of the politician.

Now, she argues, that's what our fasting approaching a point of no return.

She writes that the gradual erosion of democracy in our time is being

accelerated by the growing and accountable power of technology companies. New technologies

like AI and cryptocurrencies are emerging in a regulatory vacuum and as such, she says,

...