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It matters to me personally that a small group of people have such a massive amount of power. It's already completely uneven regarding voting power - I can vote
by staticassertion 9y ago
It matters to me personally that a small group of people have such a massive amount of power. It's already completely uneven regarding voting power - I can vote once in an election, but if I had a trillion dollars I could vote once, and then I could pay lobbyists, and fund advertisements, etc. I, as a single person or small group, with a trillion dollars, can have a massive influence.
This is regardless of how poor anyone else is.
No one should have this kind of money, it's really absurd.
- charlesdm 9y agoDidn't Trump get elected with 1/7th the budget of Hillary Clinton?
- staticassertion 9y agoI don't think boiling any single political event down to money is going to be meaningful. I can't imagine anyone denying that lobbyists exist and that large amounts of money can buy you a lot of political power.
- pmc1 9y ago> large amounts of money can buy you a lot of political power. That is not true. Hillary spent the most money in any American campaign (nearly $1 Billion) and still lost. Strategy matters more than money https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/8/14848636/hillary-clinton-tv-ads https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/8/14848636/hi...
- staticassertion 9y agoSee the post you replied to for the same response.
- balthasar 9y agoLooks to be half. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/09/trump-spent-about-half-of-what-clinton-did-on-his-way-to-the-presidency.html https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/09/trump-spent-about-half-of-wh...
- pmahoney 9y agoThe situation is more complex than candidates' election spending. For example, many of the groups in [1] influence various radio and television programs, and through those, elections. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers#Think_tanks_and_political_organizations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Ko...
- crusso 9y agoKaty Perry has a massive amount of political power compared to you as well. How should we handle her and other celebrities? How about unions and union bosses? News media heads? If we're going to be fair, shouldn't we control anyone at all who has influence?
- staticassertion 9y agoWhat is this argument even?
- ccallebs 9y agoSome people are more influential than others. Money is only one vector of influence. He's rhetorically asking whether we should regulate the other vectors with hope that no one person has more influence than anyone else.
- phil248 9y agoFor purely practical reasons, we should make efforts to disperse power within society away from severe concentrations. Not uniformly, not absolutely, but we should work to keep the trend from becoming too strong in the direction of concentrated power. Otherwise, the vast masses are liable to suffer and experience reduced capacity to alleviate that suffering. See: All of human history
- sintaxi 9y agoThen create a better company then those people and give away your wealth.