Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
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.
“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
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.
Wrong.
I'm assuming that you're advocating stricter rules on campaigning, more restrictions on speech and donating, etc.
That's going after the symptom, not the cause. The cause is that government has too much power. As we descend into banana-republicanism, everybody with any interests has to play this defensive game. Because at any moment, they could find themselves a political target.
Restrict government to its constitutional duties, and suddenly these corporations have no reason to care what's going on in DC.
I don't know if you have ever read the US Constitution. The powers of each branch are explicitly demarcated. The meaning of the Constitution should never change. If the people think something is important enough to change we have a way to amend the constitution. If enough people think the government should have a power it doesn't currently have we can easily give them or take away those powers. People actually used to respect it. For instance we had an amendment to prohibit alcohol. We then passed another amendment to repeal that one. But now we let the government prohibit all sorts of things without an expressed authority.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.