Re:I thanked Rand Paul for his Internet Rights efforts latel...
by dragonwriter on Friday May 17, 2013 @10:38AM
(#5724591)
> "Regulation" doesn't allow Company A to influence the government
Depends on the content of the regulation. Regulation that gives particular companies special voices on public policy does, in fact, give "Company A" a special ability to influence the government to implement policy in a way detrimental to competing "Company B" that is not granted a similar voice. There's quite a lot of regulation that does this in one form or another (usually, with safeguards that notionally serve to avoid abuse, but there is plenty of room for debate about how well those safeguards work.)
Depends on the content of the regulation. Regulation that gives particular companies special voices on public policy does, in fact, give "Company A" a special ability to influence the government to implement policy in a way detrimental to competing "Company B" that is not granted a similar voice. There's quite a lot of regulation that does this in one form or another (usually, with safeguards that notionally serve to avoid abuse, but there is plenty of room for debate about how well those safeguards work.)