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>Lobbyists don't have to lobby for the same positions / organizations / goals their entire lives. They usually follow the money. I think the parent comment is
by gruez 1y ago
>Lobbyists don't have to lobby for the same positions / organizations / goals their entire lives. They usually follow the money.
I think the parent comment is trying to dispell the not entirely unpopular perception that the revolving door involves some sort of quid quo pro. The typical telling is that while working in government they'll enact policies that are favorable to some company, with the understanding that the company will give him a cushy job as a "lobbyist" in exchange.
- svnt 1y agoWhich will happen, unless the group paying him accomplished their major goals, can accomplish them some other way, or someone else pays him more to do something else. Contrast this with actual public service.
- gruez 1y ago>Contrast this with actual public service. See my other comment. If "public service" involves taking a job with mediocre pay, poor job security, and being barred from the field for 5 years, you'll only end up with rich partisan hacks and ideologues taking the post. All the competent people would be working at companies.
- svnt 1y agoThis presumes a reality where money and power are the only selection criteria. The idea of service is absent, and it is absent by design. “We live in capitalism, and its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”