Yeah, I'm certainly not denying that a lot of policies seem bought-and-sold, and lobbyists clearly have a ton of influence. I do think that the situation is more complicated than mere corruption, though. For example:
Copyright law is so bad largely because there really wasn't a coordinated effort to lobby counter the entertainment industry until the last 5-10 years.
Unlimited liability for corporations really can lead to bankruptcies that, well, put a lot of people out of work.
The U.S. private medical/pharmaceutical industry really does drive a lot of the world's medical advances.
I don't think there's a single country out there which has adopted meaningful environmental regulations to counter global warming, because nobody knows how to do it without crippling industry and radically changing lives.
None of these are the last word on these subjects, of course, and I'm not at all denying that industrial/corporate lobbying played a role in the bad policies we have now. But I do think it's important to understand why we're in the state we're in.
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- Copyright law is so bad largely because there really wasn't a coordinated effort to lobby counter the entertainment industry until the last 5-10 years.
- Unlimited liability for corporations really can lead to bankruptcies that, well, put a lot of people out of work.
- The U.S. private medical/pharmaceutical industry really does drive a lot of the world's medical advances.
- I don't think there's a single country out there which has adopted meaningful environmental regulations to counter global warming, because nobody knows how to do it without crippling industry and radically changing lives.
None of these are the last word on these subjects, of course, and I'm not at all denying that industrial/corporate lobbying played a role in the bad policies we have now. But I do think it's important to understand why we're in the state we're in.