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It doesn't take much money to influence politics in the US. It's confusing in that sense but politicians are often caught taking very small 5 and 6-figure bribe
by cannabisceo 8y ago
It doesn't take much money to influence politics in the US. It's confusing in that sense but politicians are often caught taking very small 5 and 6-figure bribes.
- dsr_ 8y agoA number of years ago I figured out the required budget to pay for the entirety of the winning campaigns for the most expensive 51% of senators and representatives. IIRC it came out to a quarter's profits for one of the megacorporations. That was before SuperPACs were widespread, which make it easy to spread that money around. The surprising thing used to be how cheaply politicians can be bought, and now it's how that can be done so legally.
- rayiner 8y agoIsn’t that a huge red flag to your conclusion, though? Generally (legal) avenues for outsize returns don’t just sit around waiting to be exploited cheaply. Look at how much VC money is chasing below market returns. We’re supposed to believe that lobbying yields huge returns but megacorps like Yahoo are investing just $10-20 million a year on it?
- jessaustin 8y agoDon't assume that lobbying is the only form of corruption. There's lots of illegal stuff too. Federal officials seem reluctant to investigate more than sporadically. It's almost as if self-interest affects their actions too.