Matt Mahan

I mean, there are a lot of things we can do to capture billions in revenue to close loopholes in the tax code.

This is, of all the proposals, the worst, the least likely to work, the most likely to hurt working people.

But I also think we have to acknowledge in a state that keeps asking for more before we do better, we've got to acknowledge that social mobility is down because of public policy failures first and foremost.

Public schools that aren't performing,

housing that isn't affordable, energy that isn't affordable.

When half of people, sorry, when most Californians are spending over a third of their income on housing, many spending over half of their income on housing, that hits social mobility a lot more than the fact that the tech sector has had a bunch of growth.

It's just these are fundamental public policy failures, and the sooner we own them and think differently about our regulatory environment and our policies so we start fixing them, the better for California, the better for the Democratic Party, most importantly, the better for the people we serve.

Look, I do think we need to take economic inequality and social mobility much more seriously than we have.

I think we need to ask and ultimately demand our wealthiest individuals, our tech sector, industries that do well to be structured in a way that works for people.

I'm curious what you think.

Maybe I'll turn the tables for a moment.

I think that we need a shared prosperity that includes

people having some sort of equity from or more direct benefit in the incredible gains that tech has produced.

AI is scaring a lot of people because it could lead to the elimination of jobs, further concentration of wealth.

What do you think is the appropriate role for the tech sector and those who have profited immensely from it to ensuring a level playing field or at least some semblance of equality of opportunity?

I hope that's true.

It's a very optimistic read.

I do think my read of history is that technological change, while ultimately producing greater abundance, if you will, often is really hard on people.

For a period, yeah.

And that's why, in San Jose at least, we've created AI upskilling courses for our workers.