4 ms·

> Tech workers are the American elites. I don't have any congressmen on speeddial to get whatever I want passed through the next pork barrel bill in Congress,

by zanny 10y ago

> Tech workers are the American elites. I don't have any congressmen on speeddial to get whatever I want passed through the next pork barrel bill in Congress, what am I doing wrong?

lisper 10y ago
You aren't writing checks. Send a Congressman $1000 (that's really all it takes to get their attention) and you'll be amazed how responsive they will come. Senators are a little more expensive, but still reasonably priced at $2-5k. Presidential candidates are in the low five digits.
- dimino 10y ago
  Tech workers probably want to put that $1,000 into their homes, or into their kid's savings, or pay down some of that student loan debt. I'm a tech worker and I don't honestly see a near-term future where I would throw $2,000 at a senator to talk to them about, say, net neutrality. I've got all kinds of things I'm saving for! My boat isn't going to drain me of my earnings by itself!
  - lisper 10y ago
    Everyone needs to decide on their priorities in life. If you want political influence (or at least the illusion of political influence) you can have it for a pretty modest price. If you want real political influence of the sort that will actually let you move the needle on something like net neutrality then you need to be writing much bigger checks. $1k will buy you half an hour on the phone will a congressman who will pretend to listen to you. But to actually influence policy you need budgets in the 6-7 digits because you have to repeat the process across many dozens of congressmen and senators.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > You aren't writing checks. Send a Congressman $1000 (that's really all it takes to get their attention) and you'll be amazed how responsive they will come. Senators are a little more expensive, but still reasonably priced at $2-5k. Presidential candidates are in the low five digits. Except for the first, all of those numbers are (or state a range that includes) amounts that exceed the limit for a single donors campaign donations for a single election cycle to a single candidate. Having to return your donation because accepting it will exceed the legal limit may get a candidate to notice you, but perhaps more as someone who they need to be careful around to avoid scandal than anything else.
  - lisper 10y ago
    You give the legal limit to the candidate directly, and the rest goes to their super-PAC.
ebiester 10y ago
You're not giving the max ($2700 for primary, $2700 for general) each election and gathering up a dozen people who give $1,000+ donations. This would likely be enough to get one congresscritter to look your way, at least.
- eropple 10y ago
  Yup. $2700 for a primary, $2700 for a general election. Now consider how much of the country could conceivably throw $5400 at something like that without significant sacrifice, and "elite" starts to make a lot more sense.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    The elites in terms of expenditure-driven political influence are people whose expenditures far exceed the legal limit on direct donations (because they'll do that for more than one candidate in a cycle, plus giving money to entities like the party congressional/senate campaign committees, and the party national committees, and politically active interest groups, interest group PACs, and candidate- and issue-focused SuperPACs, and, in some cases, carefully structuring transactions to give goods and services directly to candidates and office holders while skirting bribery and corruption laws.)
    - eropple 10y ago
      I'm well aware, thank you. But if you max out your average Congressman and ask for a meeting, you get it. You will be invited to events--including ones that are not donation-expected for years after the fact, and your congressman will almost certainly know you by name, if not face. This is not a great system, but many tech workers can get into that circle if it's something that matters to them.

by zanny 10y ago

> Tech workers are the American elites. I don't have any congressmen on speeddial to get whatever I want passed through the next pork barrel bill in Congress, what am I doing wrong?

lisper 10y ago

You aren't writing checks. Send a Congressman $1000 (that's really all it takes to get their attention) and you'll be amazed how responsive they will come. Senators are a little more expensive, but still reasonably priced at $2-5k. Presidential candidates are in the low five digits.

dimino 10y ago
Tech workers probably want to put that $1,000 into their homes, or into their kid's savings, or pay down some of that student loan debt. I'm a tech worker and I don't honestly see a near-term future where I would throw $2,000 at a senator to talk to them about, say, net neutrality. I've got all kinds of things I'm saving for! My boat isn't going to drain me of my earnings by itself!
- lisper 10y ago
  Everyone needs to decide on their priorities in life. If you want political influence (or at least the illusion of political influence) you can have it for a pretty modest price. If you want real political influence of the sort that will actually let you move the needle on something like net neutrality then you need to be writing much bigger checks. $1k will buy you half an hour on the phone will a congressman who will pretend to listen to you. But to actually influence policy you need budgets in the 6-7 digits because you have to repeat the process across many dozens of congressmen and senators.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> You aren't writing checks. Send a Congressman $1000 (that's really all it takes to get their attention) and you'll be amazed how responsive they will come. Senators are a little more expensive, but still reasonably priced at $2-5k. Presidential candidates are in the low five digits. Except for the first, all of those numbers are (or state a range that includes) amounts that exceed the limit for a single donors campaign donations for a single election cycle to a single candidate. Having to return your donation because accepting it will exceed the legal limit may get a candidate to notice you, but perhaps more as someone who they need to be careful around to avoid scandal than anything else.
- lisper 10y ago
  You give the legal limit to the candidate directly, and the rest goes to their super-PAC.

ebiester 10y ago

You're not giving the max ($2700 for primary, $2700 for general) each election and gathering up a dozen people who give $1,000+ donations. This would likely be enough to get one congresscritter to look your way, at least.

eropple 10y ago
Yup. $2700 for a primary, $2700 for a general election. Now consider how much of the country could conceivably throw $5400 at something like that without significant sacrifice, and "elite" starts to make a lot more sense.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  The elites in terms of expenditure-driven political influence are people whose expenditures far exceed the legal limit on direct donations (because they'll do that for more than one candidate in a cycle, plus giving money to entities like the party congressional/senate campaign committees, and the party national committees, and politically active interest groups, interest group PACs, and candidate- and issue-focused SuperPACs, and, in some cases, carefully structuring transactions to give goods and services directly to candidates and office holders while skirting bribery and corruption laws.)
  - eropple 10y ago
    I'm well aware, thank you. But if you max out your average Congressman and ask for a meeting, you get it. You will be invited to events--including ones that are not donation-expected for years after the fact, and your congressman will almost certainly know you by name, if not face. This is not a great system, but many tech workers can get into that circle if it's something that matters to them.