251–260 of 362 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You cherry picked California which is very much an outlier compared to the rest of the country? Are you denying the effect of money affecting political outcomes, the rich wouldn’t spend their money on media and PACs if it didn’t work would they?
> Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches group to influence CA politics I'm talking about the actual issue being discussed! Garry Tan isn't launching a group to influence Wyoming politics.
I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
How do you define "manipulate" here?
For example, lobbying. Or, posting on social media. Or, creating a social media. Or, controlling a social media algorithm. Or, in the Trump administration, signalling loyalty via donations with the intention of less-strict enforcement (see: every tech company right now).
You'll notice most new regulations like tariffs have specific exemptions carved out for tech companies. The reason that exists is because tech companies have quid-pro gave Trump hundreds of millions of dollars and, in exchange, they have written the laws to get themselves out of jail.
This is sort of just what happens when you allow money to buy decisions. This sucks morally, obviously, but it also sucks economically. Our economy is on the verge of imploding. The only reason it hasn't is because it's being artificially propped up by the regulatory landscape, i.e. the oligarchy is writing the laws such that they will survive, and their competition will not. This also goes hand-in-hand with protectionist policy which, surprise surprise, is the name of the game for this administration.
Good. I'll take Gary Tan and his demonstrated efforts to clean up a corrupt dysfunctional San Francisco over any opponent. Oh yes and fuck the Nimbys.
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This has proven to be a disaster in practice. See also: California.
Wrong. It has actually been scientifically proven otherwise in crowd theory : with the right setup, the crowd is more effective to take a good decision that the top1 best decision maker. Exemple : a crowd playing chess may beat the top1 chess player, even though the crowd individually cannot beat him.
I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
Study after study shows that money doesn't really effect the results of high-information elections. If it really did, Hillary Clinton would have been president twice . It's just that candidates with a ton of support tend to raise a ton of money. Low-information elections are where money seems to help. I think we can throw that on the pile of 'your democracy is only as good as your electorate', and we have an electora…
Politics does not start and end with elections.
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I’ve heard about a borrowing tax as an alternative, because that’s when paper money becomes spending money I would love to see that discussed
I want to do some improvements on my house. So I take out a home equity loan. Oops! Actually since my house is worth $500K more than when I bought it, now I have to pay $100K to the government since the gain is now realized by using the asset as collateral!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Study after study shows that money doesn't really effect the results of high-information elections“ Your earlier statement, in which you claim that “money doesn’t effect result” followed by a useless distinction of high or low info elections. You’re really trying to dance a fine line of nonsense here. “ We find a positive and statistically significant relationship between campaign expenditure, campaign contributions…
>Our finding is in line with existing results in the literature regarding the US House elections that incumbent candidates gain less from spending, compared to their contender counterparts. This is due to diminishing returns that occur at a certain point, after which incumbent candidates can increase the winning probability only marginally (Green & Krasno, 1988). However, this finding is in contrast with other studie…
You don't need to win most states in the US, nor most people. Just target 5-6 swing states and throw billions into the most wishy-washy voters in the country.
I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
> we need to get money out of politics Not really possible. There's at least 40 more years of citizens united before any practical ability to restrict money in politics becomes constitutional again. > we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s currently failing everyone but the ultra wealthy Not true. The plurality that voted in the current administration are generally pleased with the state of…
You haven't even tried checking 2026 approval ratings, have you?