Rep. Ro Khanna on his new book ‘Dignity in a Digital Age

’Feb 1, 2022 6:30 PM EST

Silicon Valley is home to some of the world's largest technology giants such as Meta, Apple and Alphabet. Rep. Ro Khanna represents that influential part of California in Congress. In his new book "Dignity in a Digital Age" he says tech companies should stop concentrating their jobs in cities like San Francisco and create job opportunities across the country. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

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Judy Woodruff:

Silicon Valley is home to some of the world's largest technology giants, Intel, Apple, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Democratic Representative Ro Khanna represents that influential and wealthy part of California in Congress, and in his new book, "Dignity in a Digital Age," he says tech companies should stop concentrating their jobs in cities like San Francisco, and create employment opportunities across the entire country.

And Congressman Ro Khanna joins us now.

Thank you for being here. Congratulations on the book.

I mean, I say, you know, the book is all about democratizing the digital world, but I was struck because you say at the outset your main aspiration is to lessen some of the bitterness within our country.

What are you referring to there?


Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA):

Judy, the young folks in my district are very optimistic about America, $11 trillion of market cap.

It's gone up 40 percent in the two years during the pandemic. Apple has gone from $1 trillion to $3 trillion. The young folks have robotics workshops in their garages.

But, for a lot of America, the new economy hasn't worked. It's meant jobs going offshore, deindustrialization, people buying one-way tickets out of their hometown.

And I believe, to reduce some of the division, we have to bring the opportunities of the modern economy to communities left out, so people can prosper without leaving their hometowns. And so, when Silicon Valley prospers, Youngstown, Ohio, or Beckley, West Virginia, could prosper, and that there's more interconnection in our economy.


Judy Woodruff:

Dig into that a little further, because people — again, people look at you. You represent, as we said, this — these powerful tech giants.

And yet you're saying the wealth needs to be spread around, that the work should be done across the nation. What's the logic here?


Rep. Ro Khanna:

Well, look, Judy, let me give you a very concrete example, Intel.

Now, they could have put more fabs to make semiconductors in my district. They made a decision to invest in New Albany, Ohio. I was just talking to Pat, the CEO of Intel, today, and he said it's not just the economics of it, about creating 3,000 manufacturing jobs and 7,000 construction jobs.

There's something cultural going on, the excitement there, the enthusiasm for an economic revival. And that's what we need to discuss. It's not that these tech jobs are, go become a coder for Google, or turn coal miners into software engineers. There are going to be 25 million of these digital jobs. They intersect with the manufacturing and construction jobs of the future.

And we have got to bring these jobs and opportunities to places that have been totally left out and deindustrialized if we hope to have a comeback in those areas.


Judy Woodruff:

You weave several themes into the book, and one of the things you talk about is, we need an Internet bill of rights. I think a lot of us have heard about that, but what does it really mean?


Rep. Ro Khanna:

Judy, it's a couple of simple principles.

First, before your data is collected, you should have to say, I'm OK with that. Right now, people click through these long agreements, and their data is used. And it's used to target individuals and to make decisions about what you see, without people knowing about it.

The second part of an Internet bill of rights is, we have to deal with a lot of the misinformation online. I mean, there should be basic standards. You can't be a company and sell a product, for example, that's causing teenage depression, in the case of Instagram. You shouldn't be able to put out information that is telling people don't take vaccines and causing a public health crisis.

I don't think there should be the same standards as broadcast journalism. But, certainly, there should be some standards. You can't just say whatever you want online, and think there's no repercussion.


Judy Woodruff:

You also write about what you have described as progressive capitalism.

How does that relate? How — first of all, what does it mean? And then how does it relate to everything else you're saying here?


Rep. Ro Khanna:

It relates in terms of the sense of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur as self-made. And they are self-made in a sense. They haven't inherited millions of dollars.

But they come with certain good fortune. They tend to be young people who are born to middle-class or upper-middle-class families, and they tend to have health care. They have an education. They grow up in safe neighborhoods. And they have the freedom to take risks, the freedom to fail and still have a safety net.

Progressive capitalism, to me, means you want innovation, you want entrepreneurship, but you want everyone to have that basic health care, education, and you want an inclusivity when it comes to race and gender, which, frankly, Silicon Valley has failed at.


Judy Woodruff:

In connection with that, and this other theme of, frankly, trying to even the playing field, you talk about creating a national digital corps of young people who would go and live in different parts of the country for up to six months.

Why would that — why would that accomplish what you're trying to do, or how would it accomplish…


Rep. Ro Khanna:

Well, Judy, let me give you an example of Claflin, a great HBCU in South Carolina.

And they wanted to have a partnership with tech companies. They kept sending 4.0 students and resumes, and they weren't getting hired. And it turns out that those students were not getting the training on the interview techniques and whiteboard interviews.

Now, when you have young people actually working with them, they actually got jobs and opportunities. So, I think we have all of these folks who want to give back. It's not them telling communities what they want to do, but if they work with communities and listen to those communities' aspirations, that could actually help move the needle forward.


Judy Woodruff:

How much of what you're asking for here needs congressional approval? And what makes you think that can happen in this current divided environment, which is what you do write about?


Rep. Ro Khanna:

A lot of what I'm talking about does need congressional action.

There is hope. I mean, with the Intel example in Ohio, the CHIPS Act, which would give funding for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, actually has passed the Senate. We're hoping to take it up in the House this week or next. I believe that will get to the president's desk, along with the Innovation and Competition Act, which I worked with Senator Schumer and bipartisan, to build technology in the United States.

So there is a place where we have hope of actual action.

On the Internet bill of rights, candidly, Judy, it's been much harder, but here's why I think, ultimately, Congress will face the pressure. They're going to hear from parents that they don't want their kids being manipulated on Instagram, and they don't want teenagers facing anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

They're going to hear from constituents that it's wrong to have anti-vax information circulating on the Internet. And they're going to hear from Americans that these institutions, if unchecked, are harming our democracy. These are the modern town halls.

This is the modern digital sphere. And we can't just cede the construction of that to Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey. As Americans, we want to construct it. That's the purpose of Congress. And it would be awfully sad if we don't ultimately do our job.

I think people are realizing, this is not tech policy (INAUDIBLE) policy. This is, what do you want 21st century American democracy to look like, and are we up to that task?


Judy Woodruff:

Congressman Ro Khanna, Democrat of California.

The book is "Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us."

Congressman, thank you very much. We appreciate it.


Rep. Ro Khanna:

Thank you, Judy. Appreciate it.