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Following Tech's Money Trail In Washington
snydeq writes "Having outlayed $111 million to gain political influence in 2009, the tech industry is clearly learning how to play the lobbying game, writes InfoWorld's Bill Snyder. And while longtime lobbying stalwart General Motors nearly outspent the tech industry on its own, the rise of lobbying among tech giants, especially those under antitrust scrutiny, is staggering. Google, which has been drawing interest from the feds over its online advertising business, has increased its efforts twelve-fold in the past four years. And while Google frames its sudden increased interest in Washington as a matter of growth inspiring greater civic responsibility, the company may find itself sucked further into Washington, now that it is party to an international spat involving both the US and Chinese governments. Among those that top the list of tech lobbyists, Oracle, Intel, and Microsoft all have come under scrutiny in the past year, with Intel accused of monopolistic practices and Oracle requiring sign off on its merger with Sun."
...more influence bought by money.
Living With a Nerd
Back in 2007-2008, I was doing lobbying work for an non-profit organization. At one event for a certain congressman from Iowa, I was seated between a lobbyist from Northrop-Grumman and a lobbyist from Microsoft (incidentally, I was across from a sugar industry lobbyist, and ended up getting into a separate argument with him about tariffs on sugar being why we have to use hfcs in soda and whatnot, but that's irrelevant).
During the lunch, I got into a conversation with the MS lobbyist and asked him if he thought it would be worth it to upgrade from XP to Vista on my laptop, to which he replied "do you still have the XP disks that came with the computer?" "No," I said, "I got the laptop as part of the compensation from my last contract and it didn't come with the disks." "Well, then," he replied "I'd just leave well enough alone since you won't be able to go back when things go wrong."
Frankly, it was one of the most sensible things that I'd heard anyone say then entire time I was in D.C.
What's that Google? Buying politicians isn't evil? http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html You walk this line closer every day...
The anticipated increase in demand for lobbyists has led to a sharp rise in the NYSE, apparently in response to higher stock prices in the weasel breeding industry. Revised tipping fees at local dumps are also expected to change as the unfilled demand for lobbyists increases "landfill mining" to recover used sanitary products.
Observers say both source streams should be on-line and supplying lobbyists within the year.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
The U.S. government is very corrupt. The government is not about what's sensible, but about who has the most money.
The U.S. government has killed or caused the death of more than 11 million people since the end of the 2nd world war. All of that killing was apparently for money.
The U.S. government has 6 times the percentage of its citizens in prison of any other country in the history of the world.
The U.S. government consistently spends money it doesn't have, and is has more debt per citizen than any country in the history of the world.
“lobbying” is nothing else, than a euphemism for bribing. Which would be equal to treason for the politician, if that were not changed trough... you guessed it... bribing.
Which would mean at least a decade of well-deserved prison or death penalty, in most law systems.
Yay. “But it’s just lobbying. It’s normal.”
No, it’s not! Way to twist reality...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
It doesn't take long for an industry to develop (or simply realize) the reality that it is cheaper to lobby the government to ban your competitors than it is to out-compete them (or become commoditized). Even the good guys have to pay, because even if they are not seeking government protection, their competitors are.
If you allow the government any control over economic activity, for totally virtuous reasons, you'll end up here. Eventually it becomes more profitable to regulate (i.e. to destroy) than to produce. At which time a cultural reboot is necessary.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
I am posting this from my cube that is in a law firm office on K street. I thought all of these PAC meetings were a way for the politicians to get out and meet the people. Let me walk a few blocks over to the Jack Valenti Building (MPAA headquarters) or the AFL-CIO headquarters around the corner and see if they know anything about this lobbying thing.
If you voted Republican or Democrat, you are part of the problem. No amount of backpedaling or justification will change that.
haha, are you stupid? or do you just listen to pundits for all you information? of course, In repeat myself.
The US Government has very little corruption. It's there, but it i frowned upon, people loose their careers over it and it's a huge scandal. But compared to most other countries? we're fucking saints.
try actually doing business in other countries.
"The U.S. government has killed or caused the death of more than 11 million people since the end of the 2nd world war. All of that killing was apparently for money. "
WTF is that about?
"The U.S. government has 6 times the percentage of its citizens in prison of any other country in the history of the world. "
Wrong; however we do have too many people in prison.
"The U.S. government consistently spends money it doesn't have"
not strictly true.
"...and is has more debt per citizen than any country in the history of the world."
and that's factually wrong.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Didn't General Motors get a bunch of money from the government and then declare bankruptcy? I guess we know where the money went.
Give them three weeks to discuss and pass laws, and also limit terms of both the congress and the senate to a total of six years.
Perhaps then they won't have as much time to warm up the graft machine. If you keep changing the lawmakers, lobbyists have to hit a moving target and the "will of the people" has a slightly better chance of competing with the "will of the stockholders".
they all should get tangled with washington i mean. the reason we have been thrown at us so much shit trying to damage and subdue internet in the past few years was that the tech crowd didnt do any lobbying or care for it at all. in the end we had the anti net neutrality attack, then came acta. we still havent thwarted acta.
had they got smart and entered washington before the net neutrality attack, we probably would have proper laws by now, or, at least we wouldnt be on the defense against megacorporations and cartels of the established order in the war for the internet.
Read radical news here
As I recall, the US Government owns a chunk of GM.
"And while longtime lobbying stalwart General Motors nearly outspent the tech industry on its own, the rise of lobbying among tech giants"
GM spends in the neighborhood of 100 Million lobbying.
There has to be law/rules/fscking clue about spending money lobbying yourself.
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .