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How would you prefer the lobbyists act? Corporations do have interests and it’s sometimes beneficial for those interests to be taken into account when creating
by jimbob45 3y ago
How would you prefer the lobbyists act? Corporations do have interests and it’s sometimes beneficial for those interests to be taken into account when creating laws (e.g. Intel with fab construction).
- nativeit 3y ago“Against the public interest” might contain a clue for the distinction they’re making.
- Tyrek 3y ago"Against the public interest" is the vaguest bar for investigation I can imagine, it's even vaguer than "probable cause" in policing! As long as you can find a person who disagrees (and presumably pays taxes), you're good to go on "against the public interest"?
- forgetfreeman 3y agoK, so let's give it a try anyway and see what kind of behavior it incentivizes.
- 6510 3y agoIt's not as silly for cable lobbyists to want something they shouldn't have as it is to have people on the gov payroll attempt to write it into law. Even more silly is for journalists to not name the offenders. Those evil cable lobbyists did this!
- advael 3y agoYour example is too vague to make much of, frankly, but in theory I'd believe perhaps it's possible for lobbyists' positions to align with or at least not contradict the public interest, though recent decades have shown precious few examples compared to the sheer volume of fuckery like this. A law could be written to not target all lobbying activity while still being able to draw useful distinctions between doing harm in the name of profit and providing some kind of useful industry insight (whatever that may be) to the process of government
- jimbob45 3y agoHow about AI censorship? Without lobbying, how would corporations share their expertise on the matter for politicians to take into account?
- Qwertious 3y ago>Without lobbying, how would corporations share their expertise on the matter for politicians to take into account? There is literally an entire govt department in the US whose core job is to unbiasedly keep the politicians informed on the expert details of the areas they're legislating. Specifically, the Library of Congress (this is why the US Congress has a library), and it's Congressional Research Service.
- Retric 3y agoIntel fab construction is exactly the kind of corruption we’re talking about here. Trying to manipulate markets via subsidies is horrifically inefficient and thus a vast waste of taxpayer dollars.
- CPLX 3y agoThis statement contains the unstated premise that efficiency is a higher goal than all other goals.
- Retric 3y agoNo, it does not. It simply suggests it’s the general public that should be protected. Bringing up inefficiency seems wrong because the goal is a subsidy not acting in the interest of the general public.
- CPLX 3y agoThe goal is to ensure domestic production of physical goods intrinsic and essential to our way of life and other economic sectors. That’s an extremely defensible policy goal.
- Retric 3y agoThe terrible efficiency due to high cost a minimal impact largely disproves that idea. Politicians aren’t stupid, when your argument only works if you assume stupidity then you’re likely misunderstanding something.
- CPLX 3y agoHuh? Either the chips we need are made on an island surrounded by Chinese warships, or they are made in Arizona. That’s what this is about. It’s not some abstract concept.
- 3y ago