The urgent need for Silicon Valley to lead a smart and civil conversation on inequality

[Commentary] Income equality is not going to improve; technology is about to make things much worse. It will, over the next decade, begin to disrupt almost every industry, wipe out millions of jobs, and make the rich even richer. Even though everyone will be able to live better and healthier lives and benefit from the technology advances, the widening gap will cause greater resentment and create a larger cauldron of dissent. This is something we need to be prepared for. So far, the Valley’s moguls have largely been in denial that technology will wipe out millions of jobs and increase inequity. They prefer to believe they are building a utopia that doesn’t have a dark side.

But one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley, Paul Graham, broke ranks and wrote an essay about the role of start-ups in income inequality. It created a firestorm and started an important debate. We need to have open discussions about the good and bad of technology and soften its negative impact. We need to discuss safety nets, the retraining of workers, and the concept of a universal basic income for everyone. We need a nationwide dialogue on how we can distribute the new prosperity we are creating. Equally importantly, we need to create equity and fairness in our legal, justice, and economic systems—which are badly lacking. Otherwise we will see even more anger, and unrest nationwide.

[Wadhwa is a fellow at Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, director of research at Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke, and distinguished fellow at Singularity University]