Re:Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
by jkhdigital on Monday January 10, 2022 @10:31AM
(#29876342)
Lobbying, as it manifests in our (the United States, in my case) current form of governance, is a direct consequence of the fact that 538 people control how 30% of GDP is spent.
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It has been pointed out that Daniel Webster was on retainer from various business interests while he was a senator. I don't know the figures for federal share of GDP in those days, but think it must have been much smaller.
Re:Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
by lwansbrough on Monday January 10, 2022 @10:38AM
(#29876469)
538 (elected) people. Seems far more (rather than too few) than is necessary. If it were 10 elected people for example it becomes harder to hide in the crowd. Look how much scrutiny is applied to the supreme court.
I'd guess that the main issue they were highlighting was the "30% of GDP" part, which was actually more like 34% pre-covid (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=8fX). There has been a consistent upwards trend since the '50s, if not earlier, and there are people alive today who remember a time when we didn't even have a federal income tax.