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I found it fascinating to see how far a modest individual contribution gets you in the political process. Less than $1000 gets you an unprompted one on one pers

I found it fascinating to see how far a modest individual contribution gets you in the political process. Less than $1000 gets you an unprompted one on one personal call with the Governor at some length, ~$100 would allow similar access to state-level legislators or local political executives, and senators are only modestly more expensive to garner attention from, certainly a maxed $3,300 personal contribution would absolutely get you direct redress of your grievances, should you desire. At that price we should all purchase access to legislators, it's a screaming bargain.

dfxm12 4y ago
Most Americans see lobbyists as dishonest or unethical [0]. With that in mind, I think most Americans would not want to buy a legislator. After all, at some level, the legislator is supposed to represent them anyway... Even if Americans did, since there's a fixed supply of representatives, as demand goes up, so will the price :) 0 - https://news.gallup.com/poll/103123/lobbyists-debut-bottom-honesty-ethics-list.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/103123/lobbyists-debut-bottom-h...
geodel 4y ago
Think about 99% uptime vs 99.99999% uptime cost for a service or next day customer support vs 24/7 phone support. If you think it should just a little bit more then, yeah, buying legislators would sound cheap.
ctchocula 4y ago
That's surprisingly affordable even for average Joe SWEs in the valley. I can see it being useful for when paperwork gets jammed in the USCIS pipeline for instance.
- jaggederest 4y ago
  Yes, I was kind of stunned, I made an in-my-opinion modest contribution to a couple people when some equity vested, as a mild form of basic political engagement, and they were prompt and solicitous in reaching out to establish positive relationships. If I ever have a dispute with some bureaucracy, I will definitely do that again as perhaps a 2nd or 3rd step - it's about similar in terms of cost to retaining legal counsel, and I have to imagine a letter from a congressperson would open a lot of doors.

dfxm12 4y ago

Most Americans see lobbyists as dishonest or unethical [0]. With that in mind, I think most Americans would not want to buy a legislator. After all, at some level, the legislator is supposed to represent them anyway... Even if Americans did, since there's a fixed supply of representatives, as demand goes up, so will the price :) 0 - https://news.gallup.com/poll/103123/lobbyists-debut-bottom-honesty-ethics-list.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/103123/lobbyists-debut-bottom-h...

geodel 4y ago

Think about 99% uptime vs 99.99999% uptime cost for a service or next day customer support vs 24/7 phone support. If you think it should just a little bit more then, yeah, buying legislators would sound cheap.

ctchocula 4y ago

That's surprisingly affordable even for average Joe SWEs in the valley. I can see it being useful for when paperwork gets jammed in the USCIS pipeline for instance.

jaggederest 4y ago
Yes, I was kind of stunned, I made an in-my-opinion modest contribution to a couple people when some equity vested, as a mild form of basic political engagement, and they were prompt and solicitous in reaching out to establish positive relationships. If I ever have a dispute with some bureaucracy, I will definitely do that again as perhaps a 2nd or 3rd step - it's about similar in terms of cost to retaining legal counsel, and I have to imagine a letter from a congressperson would open a lot of doors.