22 October 2007

Corporates

It's not enough to rail (as I frequently do) against the corporate influence on politics. While politicians and big business generally go hand-in-hand, there are nuances, as Paul Krugman points out:
The truth is that while the administration has lavished favors on some powerful, established corporations, the biggest scandals have involved companies that were small or didn't exist at all until they started getting huge contracts thanks to their political connections. Thus, Blackwater USA was a tiny business until it somehow became the leading supplier of mercenaries for the War on Terror (TM).
This sort of thing subverts democracy, but appears to be systemic. One benefit of a Social Policy Bond regime is that politicians would be allocating funds to outcomes, rather than favoured lobby groups. Those outcomes, being meaningful and comprehensible to natural persons,. would be decided openly, with full public participation.

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