Paulie
Diamond Member
- May 19, 2007
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Root cause? Why are they able to influence the government? As to other areas where they and other big contributors might want influence: subsidies, trade & tariffs, taxes, labor law..., probably others.
I don't believe the root cause is corporate money in elections. I see that as the voters responsibility to kick the bastards out of office who are taking the bribes and being career politicians. Changing the way the money influences politics only encourages the bad guys to come up with different ways to get what they want.
The root cause is the bad politicians, because at the end of the day they are the ones who can either give the corps what they want, or NOT. So we as voters need to keep a close eye on our reps and kick them to the curb the moment we see them selling us out.
As far as those other areas you mention, those are small potatoes to big business as long as they can maintain their pseudo-monopolies in the marketplace, which at the end of the day exist BECAUSE of the stifling regulatory environment.
The root cause of bad politicians is money. Destroy one aspect of that and things have to improve. Just saying we have to elect better people ignores the fact that corruption is built into the system, regardless of who you vote for.
Why shouldn't shareholders of a company get to put money toward electing a politician that might benefit their bottom line? There's nothing inherently wrong with that on the surface.
Where the situation becomes wrong is in the politicians returning the favor. Let big business donate all the money they want. That doesn't mean the politicians have to give them anything in return. But they do so because they want to get reellected. And who reelects them? Not the corporations, but the idiot voters who continue to vote against their own self interests.
What you're advocating for is just another law to save us from ourselves.