Forum Post: Get the influence of money out of politics or not?
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 25, 2011, 4:42 p.m. EST by NielsH
(212)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Having been on this forum for some two weeks now, one of the recurrent themes I see is the influence of moneyed interests on political decisions.
At the same time there is an enormous amount of noise on this forum, which I actually see as a sign of a vibrant movement, but which at times also distracts from reasonable discussions.
So my question is this: are there people here that have a well thought out argument in favor of industries writing legislation and paying for the campaigns of people in congress to get their preferred legislation passed?
Does the silence mean no one has a valid reason to maintain the status-quo, or does it mean most are drawn to more divisive topics?
The way you asked the question makes it difficult to defend :)
But hey... truth hurts if you are not ready to hear it.
I did here about more ethical corporations today, a legislation that passed in California. Maybe the question should be whether or not profit should be the only driving force of industries in the first place ?
Interesting question. I wonder how we can measure other forces.
Decentralization is key I believe. People at community level know better what their needs are. And environmentally, though some guidance might be useful, it is pretty easy to know if things are getting better, worse or are stagnating. Quantifiable measurements cannot be applied to the social aspect accurately I believe as there are as many variables as there are individuals and many more possibilities of interaction and solutions. Basically groups come together based on ideals and lifestyles and all of them have to be able to co-exist, a single idea of what a good measure of this is seems impossible to discover. The things that bind us all are the environment we live in and all the interactions we have, only the environment needs to be "protected". And I believe that the best way for that to happen is individually and so through education (familial, communal, academic etc... they all have some value for some people), laws will only get us so far. What we need is to stop being afraid. Fear (mostly of the unknown at some level or another) is the driving force of all the vicious cycles we are living through. And it started thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years ago. So it is quite a conscious step forward in our thoughts that is required.
I am a little bit disappointed.
With so much bickering about so many issues, I would have thought there'd be many coming up with reasonable arguments to maintain the status quo, or to even make lobbying and paying for candidates easier.
I may have misinterpreted the divide on this forum.
guess so