Amazon Lobbied More Government Entities Than Any Other US Company Last Year • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Lobbied More Government Entities Than Any Other US Company Last Year

#81

Post by dhimes » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #76

dhimes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what makes it an interesting problem. How can we reduce the influence on government that money allows? I think all meetings should be public, with publicly available transcripts and/or recordings. They are free to meet, but not in private.

> all meetings should be public What if someone goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Arlington, Virginia? What if that meeting happens to have some minor official from OSHA in attendance? What if people go from the meeting to a local bagel shop?

As long as they don't discuss business, no problem. Things like this come up all the time. People inside a business can't discuss insider trading stuff at parties.

But any talks that are explicit efforts of lobbying should be public and available.

Re: Amazon Lobbied More Government Entities Than Any Other US Company Last Year

#82

Post by aetherson » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 3:04 PM UTC

vicpara wrote: post #72

aetherson wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean for people not to be able to do things "under the umbrella of the corporation"? Are they allowed to pool their resources or aren't they? If they are, but they have to wink and say, "But this money that stems from the company is funneled through a different resource-pooling group," how do you imagine the world is different? Industry lobbying groups already exist. The fact that not all Amazon employee…

As a citizen, there should be no difference in how my vote is counted when I work for a company, ten or no company. If the company I work for is bankrupt or wealthy that shouldn't matter either. 1 person, 1 vote. Also, technically, companies also don't really exist. People do. A company, no matter how big should be allowed to fail and die. A human life matters a lot more. Does it? Do we want it to? Maybe we should st…

Well, good news. Your vote is in fact counted the same as everyone else's.

Is your speech as persuasive as everyone else's? Obviously not, and there is no way I can see to make that happen. If anyone has a proposal, then, you know, cool. But what I see in this thread is a lot of people making vague airy proclamations and then ignoring all practical objections like, "How would that actually work? Would there be horrifying consequences?"

Re: Amazon Lobbied More Government Entities Than Any Other US Company Last Year

#83

Post by snarfy » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:05 PM UTC

abtinf wrote: post #49

snarfy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1st amendment rights apply to people. They should not apply to corporations.

So you think the New York Times doesn’t have free speech rights?

In the context of lobbying, they shouldn't. Should Fox News? They could lobby that all press needs a specific press badge to cover certain media events. The problem isn't free speech, it's free speech in the context of lobbying. If lobbying is free speech and corporations have free speech, what should go, lobbying or free speech? Having both is clearly a problem.