4 ms·

Lobbying/Bribery seems more egregious than investing. At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them bet

Lobbying/Bribery seems more egregious than investing. At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them better than prior. Lobbying/Bribery is just pure corruption. The medical industry is so extravagant because they are among the top lobbyists of all time. Only the entirety of real estate or all US businesses(chamber of commerce) can even compete with merely the American Medical Association or AHA. Heck, combining all of medical and the lobbying is worse than every other industry including all US businesses https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders?cycle=a https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders?cy...

jtode 3y ago
Private Equity is the most destructive and bad-faith-operating version of investing, in much the same way that Kim Jong Un is the most destructive and bad-faith-operating version of a politician. The capital that one would define as the "investment" is in fact just a viral delivery mechanism, so the parasite can infest the host, devour its innards, and leave its husk to dry up.
ambicapter 3y ago
> At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them better than prior. Not when the money is basically free, e.g. the last decade of money policy. PE has always been around, so why is it hated now? Probably the forces that would normally keep it in check, namely, a cost to capital and a competitive business environment (as opposed to monopolies and natural monopolies all over the place) haven't been present in the last decade.
- khuey 3y ago
  PE has been hated since at least the 1980s, when capital was very far from free.
  - Veliladon 3y ago
    Yep. When Carl Icahn was doing it they just called it "asset stripping" and "corporate raiding" instead of using the term private equity. Fucker made squillions off the backs of misery for hundreds of thousands of people.
ARandomerDude 3y ago
Don’t forget teachers unions and the Dept of Ed. They bleed taxpayers dry because they are “helping the children” and everybody knows a nice teacher who isn’t part of the problem but will be held out as a defense of govt and union corruption.
LapsangGuzzler 3y ago
> At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them better than prior. That's a really whitewashed way of saying "layoffs, benefit reductions, and no more pay raises or bonuses". Far too often, "economic inefficiency" translates to "workers are too highly paid", you see this all time now with companies complaining about a labor shortage while there are tons of people ready to work for respectable wages.
awaythrow483 3y ago
Where does the money for all of that lobbying come from? Bribery has and will occur in every society. Lobbying is so bad in the US because certain groups have basically unlimited money

jtode 3y ago

Private Equity is the most destructive and bad-faith-operating version of investing, in much the same way that Kim Jong Un is the most destructive and bad-faith-operating version of a politician. The capital that one would define as the "investment" is in fact just a viral delivery mechanism, so the parasite can infest the host, devour its innards, and leave its husk to dry up.

ambicapter 3y ago

> At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them better than prior. Not when the money is basically free, e.g. the last decade of money policy. PE has always been around, so why is it hated now? Probably the forces that would normally keep it in check, namely, a cost to capital and a competitive business environment (as opposed to monopolies and natural monopolies all over the place) haven't been present in the last decade.

khuey 3y ago
PE has been hated since at least the 1980s, when capital was very far from free.
- Veliladon 3y ago
  Yep. When Carl Icahn was doing it they just called it "asset stripping" and "corporate raiding" instead of using the term private equity. Fucker made squillions off the backs of misery for hundreds of thousands of people.

ARandomerDude 3y ago

Don’t forget teachers unions and the Dept of Ed. They bleed taxpayers dry because they are “helping the children” and everybody knows a nice teacher who isn’t part of the problem but will be held out as a defense of govt and union corruption.

LapsangGuzzler 3y ago

> At least investing has some economic forces that cause people to conserve resources and allocate them better than prior. That's a really whitewashed way of saying "layoffs, benefit reductions, and no more pay raises or bonuses". Far too often, "economic inefficiency" translates to "workers are too highly paid", you see this all time now with companies complaining about a labor shortage while there are tons of people ready to work for respectable wages.

awaythrow483 3y ago

Where does the money for all of that lobbying come from? Bribery has and will occur in every society. Lobbying is so bad in the US because certain groups have basically unlimited money