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Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#111

Post by knowtheory »

bmelton wrote: post #108
knowtheory wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you genuinely couldn't by elections with money, there wouldn't be so much money flowing into politics. Money alone isn't sufficient to guarantee an election outcome, you still have to execute.

That people think it works enough to pay money for it isn't proof that it does. I dub this the 'Ion Bracelet Effect' (though there's probably a better name for it already). "'American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by Karl Rove, spent $104 million in the general election, but none of its candidates won. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent $24 million backing Republicans in 15 Senate races; only two of them…

No, but it's not hard to provide actual mechanisms to explain how money influences politics.

That's not saying every dollar is the same, and the money -> influence function is a straight line. But money buys reach and coverage at the very least.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#112

Post by fecklessyouth »

juliangamble wrote: post #37
alexqgb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the essence of contemporary lobbying. Most legislators can be persuaded with campaign contributions (the carrot) but those that can't get threatened with the stick, which comes in the form of a previously unheard of but suddenly flush primary opponent. Add gerrymandering to the mix, and this tactic becomes even harder to resist, since the effective sidelining of an opposing party means that no matter what else…

Lawrence Lessig is working on a people-power initiative to fix the problem of getting private finance out of elections: https://mayday.us/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_PAC

Please tell me I'm not the only one who recognizes the utter irony of his approach.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#113

Post by tesq »

honksillet wrote: post #69
w1ntermute wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The best thing for tech companies to do is to start destroying some political careers. This could be pretty interesting. For example, maybe Google could mine the web (or Twitter their tweet data) for public information on politicians and start airing their dirty laundry. For example, if someone Googles a certain politician, it could show that information at the top of the search if the politician doesn't do what th…

We don't want Google to be the next Stasi!

Too late.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#114

Post by alexqgb »

knowtheory wrote: post #111
bmelton wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That people think it works enough to pay money for it isn't proof that it does. I dub this the 'Ion Bracelet Effect' (though there's probably a better name for it already). "'American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by Karl Rove, spent $104 million in the general election, but none of its candidates won. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent $24 million backing Republicans in 15 Senate races; only two of them…

No, but it's not hard to provide actual mechanisms to explain how money influences politics. That's not saying every dollar is the same, and the money -> influence function is a straight line. But money buys reach and coverage at the very least.

OpenSecrets.org hosts a long-running effort to correlate the rate at which legislators favor or oppose particular industries with the size of the contributions they receive. Turns out, they track very closely. Like, to the point where reasonable people stop thinking "correlation" and start thinking "causation."

That's a very important point in public corruption debates, since there mere perception of corruption can diminish trust in public institutions. And trust, as it turns out, is their greatest asset. That's why effective anti-corruption laws are written to prohibit actions that simply appear corrupt, along with those that can be proven corrupt beyond all reasonable doubt.

When it comes to public trust, appearance really does matter.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#115

Post by alexqgb »

wisty wrote: post #102
gibsonf1 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eric Cantor proved that you can't buy an election with money. Ideas ultimately are what count in an election, and to the extent that any good ideas are removed from the public realm with this scheme, we all lose. The last thing we want is the government regulating money spent on political speech - the corruption potential is absolutely enormous - hence the First Amendment.

That's actually correct - it requires a gargantuan amount to "buy" an election (double the spending for 1% more of the vote, or something along those lines). But politicians are a simple and superstitious folk, and they do care a lot about fund raising. And in a 50:50 fight, they'll do almost anything for an edge. Also, while a politician might be in a safe seat, they'll gain a lot of brownie points (e.g. a promotion…

"they'll gain a lot of brownie points (e.g. a promotion)"

That's the sugar coated version. When it comes to people who already have a lot of seniority and don't need the money for their own elections, the ability to transfer funds between their reelection accounts and those of others isn't about "brownie points". It's the raw exercise of political power, and is handled not to praise, but to bury.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#116

Post by steamer25 »

arg01 wrote: post #76
steamer25 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of trying to get politicians and bureaucrats to thoroughly understand the technology and hoping that they'll steer these monopolies in a favorable direction, why don't we demand that said monopolies be dissolved? I.e., if the terms of the deal are going to be altered, why not declare that there may be two or even several players? Also, why can't this be resolved at the regional level? Why does Netflix have to…

One of the problems is they're natural monopolies. You only need the one data link and so it's (arguably) more cost effective to have a single regulated monopoly on the last mile side. You can create hybrid systems (like the UK) where other businesses buy capacity wholesale from the monopoly provider and compete over the same infrastructure.

The same could be said of the grocery stores or car dealerships in my town. The problem is that as soon as you say it'd be more efficient to have all our eggs in one basket, the human nature of the carrier kicks in and says, "Hey I've got it made now. I can take it easy because no one's allowed to compete with me". Unfortunately, hiring some delegate who's multiple-times removed from the consumer/voter and is likewise unmotivated to improve the situation doesn't change that.

Yes doing the trenching and tunneling through various neighborhoods is disruptive and requires heavy machinery, etc. but that's just to create a hole in the ground. Once some conduit is laid (as a public good by the municipality?) it should be relatively easy for new carriers to come in and pull fiber or what-have-you. You just have to make the channel big enough for e.g., several cables and then you lease the space to the x highest bidders for five years at a time where x > 1.

There are probably better ways to finance things and minimize the disruption, etc. but overall it doesn't seem infeasible to me.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#117

Post by lifeisstillgood »

Tossrock wrote: post #75
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, interestingly, there is nothing stopping us doing it ... I think it is still possible to game google results such that the top results for any politicians name includes "sex scandal of senator X" simply by a lot of people linking to it. It's democratic (if you are happy for Russian links to count in your senators feeds)

That's called google-bombing and is a well-established phenomenon.

Thank you - could not remember the term

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#118

Post by alexqgb »

fecklessyouth wrote: post #112
juliangamble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawrence Lessig is working on a people-power initiative to fix the problem of getting private finance out of elections: https://mayday.us/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_PAC

Please tell me I'm not the only one who recognizes the utter irony of his approach.

I'm not sure which martial art is about turning the force of your opponent's moves against them, but this seems like a prime example. Rest assured, Lessig is acutely aware that what he's doing comes down to a hack. That shouldn't be a tough sell here.

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#119

Post by EGreg »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #107
EGreg wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always curious as to why people think politicians are more motivated by reelection prospects that, say, their legacy or actually representing their personal views or convictions. I mean, I can understand why the ones that make it into office are the ones that fight hard to get elected in the first place, but once they are there, why wouldn't you expect a lot of them to take pride in actually representing their di…

Think of it this way: Suppose there exists a politician that cares deeply about N issues. She knows she can only do what's right on M out of those N due to various constraints. She is going to pick those M issues that are most important to her. She will fight tooth and nail to get reelected so that she can complete her work on those M issues. This is exactly what politicians should be doing, no?

Interesting point. I haven't thought about it that way. But do you think that's the explanation for all the activities where they flipflop on the other N-M issues?

Re: Y Combinator has filed an official comment with the FCC

#120

Post by quadrangle »

fecklessyouth wrote: post #112
juliangamble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawrence Lessig is working on a people-power initiative to fix the problem of getting private finance out of elections: https://mayday.us/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_PAC

Please tell me I'm not the only one who recognizes the utter irony of his approach.

The campaign itself explicitly recognizes the irony. You aren't being that observant if you fail to recognize that.
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