AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying

Many of the groups that spend the most on lobbying are composed of "normal" people who have banded together for some common interest. For example:

- The AARP ($21M annual spend) has 38M members

- The National Association of Realtors ($54M annual spend) has 1.5M members

- The American Medical Association ($24M annual spend) has 300K members

Of course that doesn't mean that their interests necessarily align with your interests.

I already pay for my government in taxes (which ironically these big cos don't pay).

Besides, if I were to gather up 4 million to lobby, the opposition would simply spend 8 million instead which they could come up with just as easily. They don't have to outrun the bear, the just have to outrun you.

Normal people can't offer speaking fees, consulting gigs, and other sinecures to politicians and their staffers after they leave the government.

It seems to me that there's really nothing at that store that "normal people" want to buy.

Everything that we want to do can be done through ordinary collaboration with no need for the state. The special services which the state provides (violence and threats of violence, imperialism, inhibition of movement of people and goods across imaginary lines, etc) are the kinds of things that are really only interesting to the kinds of people who are already spending their money on lobbying.

I think of that Netflix series on FIFA and its rampant corruption. The bribes in question are laughable, considering that FIFA is a multi-billion dollar operation, and it's always some round number like $1M. At least add some cents to it so it's not glaringly obvious in the bank accounts.

That's how Groupon originally started.

"re-buy democracy"

I have a family member who's a lobbyist. When he talks about his job, a common theme is that a huge amount of his work is trying assess the impacts of policy on businesses (albeit mainly big businesses) and make sure lawmakers are able to take that into consideration. I don't know how well that represents lobbying as a whole, but that part always made sense and didn't seem like a bribe.

Several million dollars, as mentioned in the article, could easily be the cost of paying, e.g., 20 people to perform and communicate an assessment, as opposed to a direct "donation" to a politician. It's not said where that money was spent.

Reminds me of the time Tony Blair left office and went to work for JP Morgan Chase.

https://www.forbes.com/2008/01/10/jpmorgan-consultancy-advis...

I never understood that narrative either. You won't get high quality information from someone that is paying you for influence. You will get a lopsided/biased perspective, and the unwritten expectation is you will use it or contributions will cease.

Congress can and does ask companies for their expertise/stance on any given issue or policy, for free. They want to be involved for the same reason they lobby.

> I got a new busclicking captcha

Busclickers are S-tier captchas IMO, always easy to identify. Motorcycles and bicycles, on the other hand, are maybe the worst – D-tier at best.

/tangent

I've been seeing them too. Towards the bottom of the recaptcha box there's an option to select "conventional" or similar and not use QR, it's easy to miss