Tech Bros Kiss the Ring: Corporate Loyalty Is for Sale and Always Has Been

Ring Kissing Is the Business Model

Let me tell you exactly what happened with the tech bros, because the media is going to overthink this into oblivion. Silicon Valley was a Democrat operation. Full stop. And now the same executives are showing up at Republican inaugurations with big smiles. What changed?

Nothing changed. That’s the whole point.

CEOs of publicly traded companies have one job. Maximize shareholder value. If that means cozying up to the party in power, they will do it with a smile every single time. It doesn’t matter if there’s a donkey or an elephant in the White House. The check still clears.

Do you honestly think Tim Cook of Apple has any personal warmth for Donald Trump? Come on. This isn’t about feelings. It’s about regulatory protection, tax positioning, and market access. The ring gets kissed because the ring controls the levers.

The Fiduciary Duty Nobody Explains to You

Here’s what the financial press won’t tell you plainly. Fiduciary duty is the legal obligation to act in the interest of whoever you serve. For a public company CEO, that’s shareholders. Period.

That means:

• Personal political convictions are irrelevant to the job
• Whoever holds power gets the access
• Ethics are whatever the law allows, not what your conscience demands
• And the everyday American public is not the shareholder being served

This is why I refuse to take Markowski Investments public. The second you put shareholders between yourself and your clients, the conflict of interest is baked in. I answer to my brothers and my clients. That’s the whole list.

The Healthcare Warning You’re Ignoring

And while we’re at it, this same rot is spreading through healthcare. Doctors owned by private equity aren’t technically public companies, but the incentive structure is identical. There are investors demanding returns. That means the doctor sitting across from you has a boss who doesn’t care about your diagnosis. They care about margins.

This is not theoretical. This is happening right now across the country and very few people are connecting the dots between corporate ownership structures and the quality of care they receive.

The Committee That Never Fooled Me

Remember Obama’s economic recovery committee during the financial crisis? He assembled the most powerful CEOs in America to fix things. He put Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric in charge of the whole operation. At the time, GE was collapsing from the inside out.

I called it out then and I’ll call it out now. Those committees exist for optics. The CEOs show up for access. And the American public is told it’s leadership.

• Politicians get photo ops with serious-looking business people
• CEOs get face time with the administration
• Nothing structurally changes for working Americans
• Everyone goes home satisfied except the taxpayer

Stop Being Surprised

The system works exactly as designed. Corporate money flows toward power. Power protects corporate money. And the people caught in the middle are ordinary Americans trying to save for retirement, pay for healthcare, and figure out who they can actually trust.

You can’t change the game by being naive about the rules. Know who is actually in your corner and who is just kissing whatever ring happens to be in the room.