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I should have been more clear with "more say than the rest". I referred to making the laws of the country. In Finland the parliament makes the laws according to

I should have been more clear with "more say than the rest". I referred to making the laws of the country. In Finland the parliament makes the laws according to the constitution and everyone has a single vote for electing members of said parliament. From what I know companies have no extra votes to give for representatives.

cgio 8y ago
Do they have extra money to give to representatives?
- jlawson 8y ago
  Yes but at the end of the day all they can do is use that money to try to convince other voters to choose to vote their way. The power to convince is different from the power to flatly override the wishes of others. If you start trying to equalize the power to convince, now you're upending the entire media/journalistic system (where reporters and filmmakers and celebrities have far more influence than normal people) as well as the economy.
- sharpneli 8y ago
  Just like the unions have net worth of billions that they use to fund representatives. This is Finland where unions are more than just bit strong. Based on gallups the next election likely goes to the union backed party.
- jarcane 8y ago
  Here in Finland, this does happen, yes. But the larger problem is "gray money"; everyone goes to the same business parties and sauna retreats (expenses paid of course), is friends with everyone. more recently there's the novel shortcut of the business people themselves just running for office. Our current PM has a long list of business interests, including lobbying the Modi government on behalf of a startup he co-owns to sell them a chemical plant. His family also has holdings in a mining company that has received considerable amounts of government money, a fact he actually tried to cover up with in the Finnish state media Yle. So painting this as "why is it business' fault what government does!" is more than a little misleading. Government doing exactly what business wants is the whole problem.
  - xte 8y ago
    Thanks for such news, here in France and in my home country Italy, we do not here anything at all... Well I know YLE because of an ancient article about their "Nuntii Latini" news but substantially nothing else. Apart of YLE in English (witch feel... A bit limited) did you know other finnish media in English?
    - jarcane 8y ago
      There's Helsinki Times, which is about the only Finnish news media in English that even attempts to report on the bad side of Finnish politics. So much of the English language media here is just stories about "Wow, isn't Finland great?!" Yle English even cuts up stories from their Finnish versions to elide some of the more embarrassing details. It's beyond frustrating.
      - xte 8y ago
        Thanks! I'll try it :-) It's not only Finland, I think MANY other countries do the same, unfortunately I can't read Finnish so...
atq2119 8y ago
This is a rather feeble attempt at an argument, because again: right back at you. Sure, money doesn't directly give you votes in parliament. But the right to political strikes doesn't directly give you additional votes either.

cgio 8y ago

Do they have extra money to give to representatives?

jlawson 8y ago
Yes but at the end of the day all they can do is use that money to try to convince other voters to choose to vote their way. The power to convince is different from the power to flatly override the wishes of others. If you start trying to equalize the power to convince, now you're upending the entire media/journalistic system (where reporters and filmmakers and celebrities have far more influence than normal people) as well as the economy.
sharpneli 8y ago
Just like the unions have net worth of billions that they use to fund representatives. This is Finland where unions are more than just bit strong. Based on gallups the next election likely goes to the union backed party.
jarcane 8y ago
Here in Finland, this does happen, yes. But the larger problem is "gray money"; everyone goes to the same business parties and sauna retreats (expenses paid of course), is friends with everyone. more recently there's the novel shortcut of the business people themselves just running for office. Our current PM has a long list of business interests, including lobbying the Modi government on behalf of a startup he co-owns to sell them a chemical plant. His family also has holdings in a mining company that has received considerable amounts of government money, a fact he actually tried to cover up with in the Finnish state media Yle. So painting this as "why is it business' fault what government does!" is more than a little misleading. Government doing exactly what business wants is the whole problem.
- xte 8y ago
  Thanks for such news, here in France and in my home country Italy, we do not here anything at all... Well I know YLE because of an ancient article about their "Nuntii Latini" news but substantially nothing else. Apart of YLE in English (witch feel... A bit limited) did you know other finnish media in English?
  - jarcane 8y ago
    There's Helsinki Times, which is about the only Finnish news media in English that even attempts to report on the bad side of Finnish politics. So much of the English language media here is just stories about "Wow, isn't Finland great?!" Yle English even cuts up stories from their Finnish versions to elide some of the more embarrassing details. It's beyond frustrating.
    - xte 8y ago
      Thanks! I'll try it :-) It's not only Finland, I think MANY other countries do the same, unfortunately I can't read Finnish so...

atq2119 8y ago

This is a rather feeble attempt at an argument, because again: right back at you. Sure, money doesn't directly give you votes in parliament. But the right to political strikes doesn't directly give you additional votes either.