LogFAQs > #986810087

EPR-radar posted...

the plutocracy has near-total control of both parties via the R and D donor classes

I actually read a blog post related to this kinda recently that was talking about this from a pretty unexpected angle, namely that there is surprisingly little money put into political lobbying, donations and other politics-minded spending. Of course, it's a 2019 article but it was still mostly relevant until crypto started dumping absurd amounts of money into this sort of thing. But it was I think a pretty interesting take on something that I'd always sort of thought of as massive companies just buying a bunch of politicians behind the scenes

https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/

Add up all US spending on candidates, PACs, lobbying, think tanks, and advocacy organizations liberal and conservative combined and were still $2 billion short of what we spend on almonds each year.

Suppose hostile government regulation could decrease Exxon Mobils revenues 5% you would think Exxon Mobil would be willing to spend 4% of its revenue to prevent this. But Exxon makes $280 billion per year. 4% of its revenue would already be larger than the whole US political ecosystem! In fact, according to Exxons own records, they only spend about $1 million per cycle.

Maybe the most extreme example here is Tumblr.com, which recently sold for $3 million, ie the cost of a medium-sized house in San Francisco. Tumblr has 400 million monthly visitors, and at least tens of millions of active users. These people talk politics all the time, usually of a far-left variety. Nobody thinks that one of the central political discussion platforms of the far-left is worth more than $3 million? Nobody on the right wants to shut it down? Nobody on the left wants to prevent that from happening?

Some choice quotes. Maybe in a way this last one was predicting the buyout of twitter lol