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While Apple’s success has earned rock-star status in Silicon Valley, its low-wattage approach in Washington is becoming more glaring to policymakers. This to m

by mrshoe 16y ago

While Apple’s success has earned rock-star status in Silicon Valley, its low-wattage approach in Washington is becoming more glaring to policymakers. This to me sounds like senators saying, "We see that you're making a ton of money, and we want our cut." I'm glad Apple doesn't spend much money on lobbying (see http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-lobbying-spending-for-tech-companies-2010-5 http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-lobbying-spe...). If the government starts intentionally causing problems for them with the intent of forcing them to increase their lobbying budget, well... that's a scary future for my country.

arohner 16y ago
> If the government starts intentionally causing problems for them with the intent of forcing them to increase their lobbying budget, well... that's a scary future for my country. I think that's already the case. The article demonstrates Sen. Rockafeller (ironic, isn't it?) already pulled the "if you're innocent, what do you have to hide" card.
fgf 16y ago
I'm sure they want their cut but I think some of the reason for this might be more pathetic: "“It’s unfortunate because they are a major player in this area, and we are going to continue to have a long, in-depth conversation,” on these topics, said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)" My first thought was that this is a man whose biggest fear is irrelevancy. Wich fits well with my assumption that politics is full of narcissists.
billswift 16y ago
>that's a scary future for my country. Don't you mean "a scary past"? There were lots of claims that the real reason Clinton's "justice" department started actually prosecuting Microsoft was that MS wasn't donating enough money to politicians' re-election campaigns. (These claims actually made it into print, since I didn't have an internet connection back then, and I remember reading about it as it was happening.)

by mrshoe 16y ago

arohner 16y ago

> If the government starts intentionally causing problems for them with the intent of forcing them to increase their lobbying budget, well... that's a scary future for my country. I think that's already the case. The article demonstrates Sen. Rockafeller (ironic, isn't it?) already pulled the "if you're innocent, what do you have to hide" card.

fgf 16y ago

I'm sure they want their cut but I think some of the reason for this might be more pathetic: "“It’s unfortunate because they are a major player in this area, and we are going to continue to have a long, in-depth conversation,” on these topics, said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)" My first thought was that this is a man whose biggest fear is irrelevancy. Wich fits well with my assumption that politics is full of narcissists.

billswift 16y ago

>that's a scary future for my country. Don't you mean "a scary past"? There were lots of claims that the real reason Clinton's "justice" department started actually prosecuting Microsoft was that MS wasn't donating enough money to politicians' re-election campaigns. (These claims actually made it into print, since I didn't have an internet connection back then, and I remember reading about it as it was happening.)