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No, I don't want to "basically outlaw lobbying for representation". I said nothing of the sort. I said that organizations that directly profit from criminal l
by downandout 10y ago
No, I don't want to "basically outlaw lobbying for representation". I said nothing of the sort. I said that organizations that directly profit from criminal laws shouldn't be able to lobby for them. Criminal laws do tremendous damage to the lives of the people they affect, and as such need to be deliberated without the influence of people that will financially benefit from them.
And yes, a world where criminal laws are not able to be influenced by people that will profit from them is definitely one I want to live in.
- alistairSH 10y agoShould we, as software developers and IT professionals, be able to lobby about information security? Net neutrality? If we can't, and Verizon/Cox also can't (they also have a conflict), who is left? People who either don't care or lack enough knowledge of the issue to make reasonable policy recommendations?
- downandout 10y agoWill you directly profit if someone goes to jail as a result of the laws you're lobbying for? That is the only scenario I am talking about here.
- danso 10y agoAs a developer not in the Windows ecosystem, I would have definitely benefited from lobbying on behalf of an anti-trust action against Microsoft.
- downandout 10y agoDid Microsoft go to jail?
- danso 10y agoBeing incarcerated is not the only nor the worst affliction that a government can bring down upon you.
- downandout 10y agoAsk someone that has been in prison for a while what their opinion on this is. I think they'd disagree.
- danso 10y agoAsk someone whose loved ones have been fatally poisoned due to government negligence in rubber-stamping an environmental impact report and I think they'd offer a feisty debate. (Or anyone at the receiving end of military action, for that matter) The point is that drawing a line between lobbying that affects prisons (nevermind a distinction between federal, local, and other institutions of incarceration) and lobbying that affects anything else can be a largely arbitrary affair.
- downandout 10y agoI have no idea what happened to your loved ones or if they have been "fatally poisoned," and if so, who was responsible for that. What I do know, based on what you said, is that the government didn't forcibly lock them in a box for X years at gunpoint. They apparently failed to publish some kind of report you wanted them to publish. Not exactly the same thing. Criminal laws are by far the most invasive laws we have on the books, and because of that they deserve special protections against those that would seek to exploit them.