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Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by Fordrus on Monday April 03, 2017 @08:06PM (#14028397)
My Gosh, that is an extremely salient and DEEPLY DEPRESSING point.

I've been drawn to question what to do about that quite often, but I havent happened across an acceptable answer as yet.

Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by zoomzoom on Monday April 03, 2017 @08:26PM (#14028505)
My hope would be that the problem isn't "major donors" but rather uneducated and misrepresented citizens. The question about donors or deep states or any other conspiracy type scheme is both how they might affect the purpose of the education system and the integrity of the democratic machinery. These should be questioned, but fixing them might be more achievable than eliminating "major donors" which is certainly tied to income inequality in general, some level of which is most likely desirable.
Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by cassowary on Monday April 03, 2017 @09:03PM (#14028697)
Major donors have better access to the media than me. I can't educate them if the major donors are spinning opinions. My HN post will reach a negligible proportion of the voters; their prime time ad will reach a huge number.
Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by flukus on Monday April 03, 2017 @08:29PM (#14028523)
Vote for better politicians.
Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by zaphar on Monday April 03, 2017 @08:42PM (#14028597)
Step 1 is to get better politicians to run. Only then can you vote for them.
Re:Why Were Economists as a Group as Useless Over 2010-2014 ... by cassowary on Monday April 03, 2017 @09:01PM (#14028690)
If in the first election there's no-one worth voting for, stand at the next election.