July 18, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO – Jeb Bush walked out of the offices of a tech firm here Thursday surrounded by a crush of TV cameras and reporters, handed his iPhone 6 to the young aide who travels with him, Raul Henriquez, and asked him to call an Uber.
July 18, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO – Jeb Bush walked out of the offices of a tech firm here Thursday surrounded by a crush of TV cameras and reporters, handed his iPhone 6 to the young aide who travels with him, Raul Henriquez, and asked him to call an Uber.
“You wanna turn this on and get our next car before it’s illegal?” Bush said to Henriquez, a wry smirk on his face.
It was a crack meant to argue a larger point: that Hillary Clinton — if elected president — would be bad for Silicon Valley and the new tech-based economy.
Clinton doesn’t oppose services like Uber, but she did raise questions about the nature of the “gig economy” in her first major policy speech earlier this week. The Uberization of many industries is “raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future,” she said.
Clinton sought to position herself as the protector of the financially stressed worker in the new economy, but Bush, in an interview with Yahoo News, said that her approach would stifle innovation.
“Her approach and the approach of the progressive left in this country is all top-down,” Bush said. “And if we’re going to empower anybody, it ought to be the individuals that are striving for success.”
Bush spoke exclusively with Yahoo News after touring Thumbtack, a 5-year-old company that builds
Hillary Clinton makes the first major policy speech in her White House bid. (Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)
She also has said she will crack down on companies that don’t treat their employees fairly, and spoke in New Hampshire on Thursday about the need for companies to do more to share profits with their employees, though she has yet to give many specifics about how she would address the issues she has flagged.
Bush applauded the emphasis on greater growth and prosperity but argued that Clinton’s approach would be counterproductive.
“Look, the best of intentions aren’t going to be enough here. It’s OK to say we want to fill the gaps, but every time you propose another rule, another requirement, another way to protect people, you make it harder and harder for people to rise up, you make it harder for the first rung of the ladder to be reached,” he said. their services. During a tour of the building with Thumbtack’s founders, he told them he had looked at their website and saw that it “works spectacularly.” But he joked that he might not sign up for it, “because I’ve got this unique life I live now where I’m not sure I want a massage therapist coming to my house.”
He later spoke to employees and answered questions from them on a range of topics, from protections for LGBT Americans to net neutrality to his record on gun laws while governor of Florida.
He dismissed Clinton’s argument that economic growth must be paired with an emphasis on fairness for the greatest number of Americans to benefit. Clinton’s speech was based on the idea that economic growth cannot happen without a middle class that feels secure, and that stagnation in wages — as well as the continued lack of family-friendly workplace policies such as paid maternity and sick leave — have left too many Americans feeling like they are one mishap away from falling into poverty.
Courtesy: Yahoo News
