Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades • Hacker News Board

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#51

Post by BLKNSLVR » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #21

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #3

And their partners, parents, children, friends? This problem looks unsolvable to me.

> This problem looks unsolvable to me. Elect only people with no living relatives, and execute them after term's end. I vaguely remember some fantasy novel I've read many decades ago with this premise... The Goblin tower?

Plato's Republic[0] specified rules to minimise corruption opportunities. That's what comes to mind anyway.

Excerpt from [0]:

Socrates points out the human tendency to be corrupted by power leads down the road to timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. From this, he concludes that ruling should be left to philosophers, who are the most just and therefore least susceptible to corruption. This "good city" is depicted as being governed by philosopher-kings; disinterested persons who rule not for their personal enjoyment but for the good of the city-state (polis). The philosophers have seen the "Forms" and therefore know what is good. They understand the corrupting effect of greed and own no property and receive no salary. They also live in sober communism, eating and sleeping together.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#52

Post by koheripbal » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

_wldu wrote: post #23

We should also do away with the steak dinners, golf trips and other 'perks' that lobbyists/vendors give them in exchange for votes.

So meetings can not take place over a meal? ...or are you specifically saying they can only order certain dishes?

Maybe we should force all meetings with politicians to take place on the floor of a mcdonalds. No chairs - that would be too fancy.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#53

Post by andrew_ » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

bastardoperator wrote: post #27

camjohnson26 wrote: post #11

Particularly bad violations have been the Fed presidents making multimillion dollar trades with personal accounts, and Nancy Pelosi’s husband apparently directly trading on privileged information. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/fed-chief-powell-orders-ethi... https://fortune.com/2021/07/08/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-hu...

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Is there a word for ignorance based on tribalism? Legitimate question; I'd like to add it to my vocabulary, and it would perfectly describe the parent comment.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#54

Post by camjohnson26 » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

bastardoperator wrote: post #27

camjohnson26 wrote: post #11

Particularly bad violations have been the Fed presidents making multimillion dollar trades with personal accounts, and Nancy Pelosi’s husband apparently directly trading on privileged information. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/fed-chief-powell-orders-ethi... https://fortune.com/2021/07/08/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-hu...

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

I wouldn’t make it a Republican/Democrat thing since that’s guaranteed to start a flame war, Pelosi’s husband is the highest profile culprit but as you said corruption is widespread.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#55

Post by whywhywhywhy » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:28 PM UTC

I'm completely fine with politicians being paid significantly more if them, their partners and their relatives faced serious prison time is they did the sort of insider trading that is considered completely normal and weirdly they're allowed to do but it's illegal if the lowly plebs do it.

End of the day these people are paid very little on paper for the amount of pressure and responsibility yet if you follow their finances they're all building fortunes. Same should apply to funneling money into charities/businesses/"programs" where their relatives are on the boards.

They're in such a privileged position I don't consider any of this unreasonable.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#56

Post by rajin444 » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:28 PM UTC

andrew_ wrote: post #53

bastardoperator wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Is there a word for ignorance based on tribalism? Legitimate question; I'd like to add it to my vocabulary, and it would perfectly describe the parent comment.

Politics.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#57

Post by koheripbal » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

jakelazaroff wrote: post #26

Pxtl wrote: post #25

Honestly, pay them more. In every major country, if they're running orgs that have multi-hundred-billion-dollar budgets per year, and you have a few hundred of these people, you can pay them well-enough that sneaking around isn't really profitable. It would not be unreasonable to allocate 0.1% of your budget to compensating the people who control the budget, in exchange for them abandoning their conflict-of-interest…

Why would they not just do both, though?

Because there's a diminishing return to collecting more and more money.

Believe it or not, most rich people stop trying so hard once they hit a certain level.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#58

Post by elzbardico » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #21

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #3

And their partners, parents, children, friends? This problem looks unsolvable to me.

> This problem looks unsolvable to me. Elect only people with no living relatives, and execute them after term's end. I vaguely remember some fantasy novel I've read many decades ago with this premise... The Goblin tower?

You can just imprison their relatives for the duration of the mandate. And them keep them and their relatives imprisoned for another two years after the mandate is over. There's no need to kill anyone.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#59

Post by sdfjksbdf » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #48

bastardoperator wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million and has never worked outside of politics in his entire life. Maybe that seems like not a lot to the SV types, but it’s far, far more than what most people I know have to show for a lifetime of actually hard work. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-bernie-sanders-210000864...

It's from selling books. What is your point?

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#60

Post by _wldu » Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #52

_wldu wrote: post #23

We should also do away with the steak dinners, golf trips and other 'perks' that lobbyists/vendors give them in exchange for votes.

So meetings can not take place over a meal? ...or are you specifically saying they can only order certain dishes? Maybe we should force all meetings with politicians to take place on the floor of a mcdonalds. No chairs - that would be too fancy.

Right. And no 'working' conferences on tropical island resorts with 5,000 dollar per night rooms.