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Lobbying is not the same thing as corruption, and conflating the two does not help the conversation or address the problems with either.
by vonmoltke 7y ago
Lobbying is not the same thing as corruption, and conflating the two does not help the conversation or address the problems with either.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- kraftman 7y agoHow are they different, for ignorant people like me?
- lucasmullens 7y agoLobbying is legal. There's plenty of good reasons for it, for example some tech companies lobbied against net neutrality, which I certainly wouldn't call corruption.
- programmer_dude 7y agoSo lobbying is legalized corruption then? Also why is net neutrality bad?
- lucasmullens 7y agoWhoops, I meant for net neutrality.
- kraftman 7y agoDoes being able to lobby for good things as well as bad things make it better? It's still essentially bribing the government to do something other than what's in the best interests of the public?
- spopejoy 7y agoOh I think you can easily equate unconstrained corporate lobbying with corruption. A lot of the western world's focus on corruption in other countries comes down to the fact that good old "pay an extra $50 to get your building permit approved" can't be sucked up by large corporate rent-seekers. Trump can build whatever garbage he wants but good luck adding that extension to your 1-1/2 bedroom house. Or, that white-collar crimes are essentially bought off or legislated out of existence, while quality-of-life and low-level drug offenses can't be bribed away. Absolutes don't help the discussion. Corporate lobbying is indeed corruption by the rich in many, many cases. Just because there are legitimate functions for lobbying doesn't mean it's not corrupt elsewhere.