What a Donald Trump Presidency Would Mean for Your Business

A technology professional makes his case that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s stances on Internet control, health care and entrepreneurship make him the right choice for those in AV and IT.

CI Staff

In this presidential election cycle, there are two realistic candidates who have a chance of winning the honor of succeeding Barack Obama in the Oval Office: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

At this time, candidates such as Gary Johnson, Jill Stein and other so-called “third party” hopefuls represent protest votes and have no real chance of winning on November 8.

Between the two viable choices, I choose Trump as being better for the AV industry and business in general.

Not much in the laid-out plans and positions of Trump, Clinton or any other candidate is specific to the AV or IT industry, but there are a few that give an idea of how each administration would proceed in our area.

Trump has been steadfastly opposed to the hand-off that occurred at the beginning of October, giving control of the Internet addressing and routing scheme to a commission of countries instead of remaining the purview of the United States.

This has implications for us in that several members of this commission are proven state censors of information on the Internet. We can only presume they will continue this practice now that they control the roadmap to the entire Internet, not just content within their borders.


Other Opinion Columns on 2016 Presidential Election:
What a Hillary Clinton Presidency Would Mean for Your Business
What a Zoltan Istvan, Yes, Zoltan Istvan, Presidency Would Mean for Your Business
The Ugly Truth Behind Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s Tech Policies


Issues related to the general economy, business and personal economic policy don’t directly deal with the AV industry, but they’re important to consider on the business side of running an integration firm, manufacturing company or consultancy.

It should be no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention that the economy has been nearly stagnant since the collapse of the economic bubble in 2008. As shown in U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, generally anemic growth of less than 3 percent and record-high percentages of the working population who don’t have jobs have plagued our country for years.

Under the plans proposed by Trump, regulation will be reduced, lowering the hurdle to new business creation. Corporate tax rates will be reduced, encouraging more business growth and allowing them to hire more employees.

The current governmental policies for business have caused a drastic reduction in entrepreneurship in this country as well, with regulations and taxes being major hurdles. Our corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the first world.

All of these issues are major hurdles to business creation and growth.

Under the plans proposed by Trump, regulation will be reduced, lowering the hurdle to new business creation. Corporate tax rates will be reduced, encouraging more business growth and allowing them to hire more employees.

A plan for lowering the penalty for repatriating profits from overseas will make America a haven again for investment, also creating jobs. All of these plans are opposed by Clinton, who has proposed more of the same on the economic front as what we currently have.

One of the areas where we in the AV industry are seeing exponential rises in costs is in health insurance for our employees. The over-regulation of the insurance industry the past few years has caused people to lose coverage they liked and be forced to buy coverage that costs more while providing fewer real services.

Under Trump’s plan, insurance companies will be loosened up to be able to offer plans that can be more tailored to each individual. The current “one-size-fits-all” plan types have proven to be too expensive and offer a poor customer experience.


Before You Complain that We Should Stay Out of Politics …

This is an opinion piece written by an audience member. This column represents the writer’s opinions and does not represent those of Commercial Integrator. Our goal is to provide diverse opinions for our audience.


Incentives will be offered for companies to sell across state lines to offer more choices for consumers. The plans offered by Clinton will further reduce competition among insurance companies causing prices to rise even further.

While there are ample personal problems with both major candidates that have caused many to be turned off to both, the fact remains one will be our next president. The choice between the major candidates will have large implications on business practices in our industry, as well as disposable income for individual consumers for whom many of our products are still luxuries.

Continuing or expanding our current policies will not help our economy for the foreseeable future. If we want our markets to expand, we need policies from Washington that foster that growth.

In my opinion, only one candidate has the policies to do this and that’s Donald Trump.

Just a note: The opinions stated here are my own, and only my own. They are not necessarily shared by my employer, my family or my wife. Several counseled me not to write this, but I felt it was important to get the points out there.

Harry Meade is a design engineer at Cenero.

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