Verily I say unto thee, that Ian Hilliard spake thusly:
> Ezekiel wrote:
>> FYI - It's not illegal to lobby the governement. Just ask IBM or
>> Google... they know.
>
> Lobbying buys voting decisions in favor of the company for which the
> lobbying is being done. This decisions are often not in the best
> interest of the voters. Hence lobbying can be deemed as a legally
> acceptable form of corruption.
Regardless of who is doing it, lobbying is nothing more than legalised
bribery. IMHO the same can be said of out of court settlements, which is
just a way of circumventing the law with money.
Of course there is lobbying in the more altruistic sense, petitioning
for justice, but that usually doesn't involve bribery, since the parties
involved are usually not petitioning for financial gain.
If you think about all these various (or rather *nefarious*) extra
curricula activities that companies engage in, they're clearly part of a
business strategy from the outset, rather than the pleadings of innocent
victims merely defending themselves ... an all-out battle to pillage
every last penny from society using every means possible.
It isn't enough to just make a product and sell it ... no, these
companies must form protection rackets with copyrights; patents; trade
secrets; trademarks; and (just for good measure) a big dollop of
legalised bribery, just to ensure they wreak total annihilation on their
competition with complete impunity, and pervert the law to force
citizens' money in their direction. And all this gets the big red seal
of approval from the boys on Capitol Hill, primarily because it is those
boys on Capitol Hill whose pockets are being lined by lobbyists, in
campaign funds and other "benefits".
What a wonderful world.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| 'When it comes to knowledge, "ownership" just doesn't make sense'
| ~ Cory Doctorow, The Guardian. http://tinyurl.com/22bgx8
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