Eric X. Li: A tale of two political systems

[Zsari]

Understood. This would be a serious concern if the companies could simply buy politicians, but as long as the politicians must in turn entice (bribe) voters in order to get elected, the system will force alignment of interests. When those interests are not aligned (e.g. when the voters demand environmental protection, and corporations want unlimited license to pollute), it will not matter if it's a foreign corporation or a domestic corporation that is providing campaign funds--the voters will not allow it.

This is the only strength of the democratic system. When this self-correcting mechanism fails, democracy will fail. (Majoritarianism will also cause, or is causing, the failure of democracy, but that's a topic for another time).

Corporate money and politics are very much interwined in the US. Through lobbying and campaign finance, corporation are able to exert the same control over the politicans as bribing which is far more unstable and risky. Consider this, the public are the consumers, the politicans are the sellsmen, and the corporation are the boss in this system.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Corporate money and politics are very much interwined in the US. Through lobbying and campaign finance, corporation are able to exert the same control over the politicans as bribing which is far more unstable and risky. Consider this, the public are the consumers, the politicans are the sellsmen, and the corporation are the boss in this system.

It's a bit much to suggest that corporate donations to political election campaigns and bribery are equivalent. As far as your public-politician-corporation analogy, I'm not sure what's wrong with that. If the consumer doesn't like the product, he buys elsewhere. That's the beauty of capitalism: competition. Democracy also allows competition, between ideologies, parties, and individual politicians. Unions have "bribed" politicians for decades, with no complaint from the left. Now corporations are free to do the same, and this competition will improve the system by killing the "social justice" movement.

Many left-wing activists are upset because corporations finally have a level playing field with unions in the United States, and for the left, anything short of a monopoly on power is anathema (thus the sick admiration for murderous authoritarians like Che Guevara among so many on the left). It's a vast improvement, and once we can start to cut down the federal government, it will get even better--and at the same time, reduce opportunities for unions and corporations to influence the lives of the citizens.

 

[Zsari]

It's a bit much to suggest that corporate donations to political election campaigns and bribery are equivalent. As far as your public-politician-corporation analogy, I'm not sure what's wrong with that. If the consumer doesn't like the product, he buys elsewhere. That's the beauty of capitalism: competition. Democracy also allows competition, between ideologies, parties, and individual politicians. Unions have "bribed" politicians for decades, with no complaint from the left. Now corporations are free to do the same, and this competition will improve the system by killing the "social justice" movement.

Many left-wing activists are upset because corporations finally have a level playing field with unions in the United States, and for the left, anything short of a monopoly on power is anathema (thus the sick admiration for murderous authoritarians like Che Guevara among so many on the left). It's a vast improvement, and once we can start to cut down the federal government, it will get even better--and at the same time, reduce opportunities for unions and corporations to influence the lives of the citizens.

Hehe, you believe that you have a choice, but in reality you are merely moving from one sellsman to another. Ideology are sells pitch used by different sellsman in selling you the exact same product. The boss doesn't care about ideology, it's only concerned with its own bottomline, and what's benefit its bottomline will be the order of the day regardless of public opinion. Yes, the public sometimes gets upset and what they do? Kick out the sellsman and replaced it with another working for the same boss. Now imagine that boss will be a foreigner whose bottomline are best served by its ventures in a foreign land, and you'll have a problem. You can say each corporation is different, so you have not a single boss, but what I'm talking about is entire industry that's moving offshore, that's becoming foreign owned.