(Example is based on US politics, but could apply to any equally corrupt government) In this day and age, it’s clear that rampant corruption is abound with mega corporations buying up politicians with relative pennies they found under their couches.
When words and calls to action fail. Why are there no crowdfunded grassroots movements that actively try to play the same bribery game. If anything, to finally shine a light on how broken the system is.
If the dollar has a voice, why not let the people’s dollars speak?
Of course, this is clearly a terrible idea long term for any system to work like this, plus a bit of a race to the bottom.
The question is more along the line of: Has anyone actually tried this? If so, why/why not?
Be civil please.
- You can already do this. There are tons of nonprofits that lobby the government for x, y, and z.
- But these non-profits don’t tend to engage in much explicit bribery, because the people working at these organizations and who donate to these organizations think outright bribery is wrong.
- Finally, if you started a gofundme to bribe a politician, they would 1,000,000% not take your money. When you bribe someone, discretion is part of the deal, and with a public gofundme, you’ve already broken that discretion.
- You’d be a total moron to donate to some random person who claims they’ll use the money to bribe politicians
Also that!
Damn, there goes my retirement scheme!
Just market it to Trump supporters. Say your raising money for the wall. Use the first round to buy some land near the border. Next round use it for the construction of your new house and rug pull the website. The only thing more unethical is for that money to fund a MAGA true believer.
mass of funds. corps have larger available capital to spend, individuals, even collectivized, do not.
There are a lot of large PAC’s that effectively do this, pulling together a sizeable voting block and donation base. AARP, an organization for retired people, is one of the larger ones. It just happens that it is hard to a large group of people to agree on policy.
This is basically what various nonprofit orgs that people can join amount to.
Like, if you join the NRA your subscription cost is going to lobbying politicians on gun issues, among other stuff like keeping the org running and paying for nice things for the head of the org.
To really have influence we’d have to crowdfund an island where we can film politicians molesting children.
In a corrupt developing country, anyone can bribe officials for things, especially if its small and within that officials purview, in a dysfunctional semi-corrupt developed capitalist democracy, only the rich 1% can.
Example: One Child Policy was officially policy in China, but you pay their “fines”/bribes/extortion (or whatever you wanna call it) and voila, problems go away. Ask how I know… I am the second son in my family lol, and no, we aren’t a rich family, it was like from savings over a period time or something, or maybe my parents borrowed from relatives, idk the details… like… people just bribe for a lot of small everyday stuff, I heard about even getting jobs or getting into university, and people talk so casually about it. There’s a term for it “走后门” (2nd definition: to pull strings; to call in favours; to use the influence of someone in authority to achieve one’s goal), usually someone you know (关系 Guanxi), and you give them money, like probably in the form of a 红包 (Red Envelope, you know, the new year thing).
In America? Nah, there’s law and order… or something… you can’t just bribe for stuff…
Its a “gift” lol, not bribe. Thomas Clarance has declared so. Just ask him about it while he’s on vacation on the yacht of some random 1%er.
Wait, you wanna do the same? Wanna buy a supreme court justice or a congress member? Nah fam, come back when you’re part of the 1%.
(TLDR: Every country sucks and is corrupt in one way or another.)
In America if you break a driving law you typically get “points” on your license. Too many points and you lose it. Also more points = more expensive insurance costs per month.
Or you can just pay a few hundred dollars and not get points instead
In civilised countries that would be illegal. In the USA - I don’t know.
Here’s a better use for all that money.
Start a non-profit organisation that harasses and annoys the hell out of people who take bribes. Stuff like putting laxatives in their coffee, banana peels on their path, water buckets on door, and so on. You get the idea. Also, they should video those pranks and post them online. Name and shame anyone who takes bribes.
Would be easier to just call Luigi often enough.
In America business and government are not actually separate. This is important to understand because it’s a structural feature of the American economy. We are a true capitalist libertaria. The government is comprised of the companies and people in business
American business is America itself and the government is a co-leader whose purpose is to facilitate American business interests.
This isn’t corruption like in the movies where you pay off crooked cops (which doesn’t really happen here). This is what businesses and individuals competing for political power looks like in a true capitalist libertaria.
Who would of guessed a bunch of wealthy landowners would design a system to enrich themselves and their friends!?
Bonus points for making people believe in lofty ideals like justice and equality meanwhile allowing pure unfettered corruption to run everything.
What do you think donations are? No need to do the extra crowdfunding step.
The top ~5-6 people l wealthy people own more than the bottom 51% on the planet combined. Let alone a single country.
But there is something like WolfPAC
