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The scandal is that most of the policy research in the US is funded by supposedly-neutral think tanks which are funded this way— which means new laws will usual

• dcre 9y ago
  This is it. So many people appear unable to understand criticism at a structural level. As long as every individual or corporation is acting as you'd expect them to act given the conditions they're in, we're supposed to throw up our hands. But of course we don't have to do that. We can note the various reasons things work this way — growing monopoly power, tax laws governing nonprofits, lobbying regulations — and figure out how to change them.
• AndrewKemendo 9y ago
  Not to sound glib but that's nothing new and everyone in the research world knows that. The only new thing here is that it's a public story involving Google.
• anigbrowl 9y ago
  supposedly-neutral think tanks Who told you they were supposed to be neutral? The only thing I expect from a think tank is reproducibility of results, if they are making claim to an objective result.
• humanrebar 9y ago
  That's not entirely true, laws are also designed by politicians and bureaucrats, which means they'll also be written to serve politicians (incumbent advantages, for example) and bureaucracy itself (agencies don't generally lobby for more focused goals). Point being, I agree it's a shame, and I would love something better, but at some point we're saying laws are written by people and interest groups, which is pretty obvious and unavoidable.