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The In Box blog is a general news and discussion site for the News Department of North Country Public Radio. In Box contact information 
Latest NCPR News
The In Box blog is a general news and discussion site for the News Department of North Country Public Radio. In Box contact information
Latest NCPR News
“….NYSCOPBA donated nearly $274,000 to politicians….”. Those darn unions! They should act more like corporations and stay out of politics. Lucky for the unions, the Supreme court protects their right to “free speech”.
No surprise here.
Why should they “stay out of politics”?
Its probably money well spent
And that’s why they should stay out of politics.
Not sure why this even a story. I am pretty sure Sen. Little would be a supporter either way.
It would seem the union is a powerful and well financed lobby. I wonder if this explains why their collective bargaining rights, performance evaluations, current pay, and qualifications for employment aren’t under attack like those, say, in education? Education is an easy target though, which is why the Governor has chose it. Despite it also being a very well funded and powerful lobby.
Education is an easy target because the teachers’ unions have made it so.
Why should people who have a vested interest in political decisions stay out of politics? I don’t get that?
It was nice to see some of my customers on this list. Glad to see they aren’t in any danger of going broke yet.
I recently heard a statistic about return on investment. I think they said that money invested in lobbying has an average return on investment of something like 2000%.
Did anyone else hear that?
What i find most interesting is how they bet both sides of the coin, very crafty, very telling.
I read that no nation has ever had a greater percentage if it’s population locked behind bars… ever…including Stalin. The cost of locking folks away is unimaginable, and the merit in doing so is very uncertain.
Are we safer, are our kids protected from drugs, is our society more stable? It would be cheaper to let the current prison population go and lock up the 1% instead.
Maybe we’d get a second shot at democracy.
Paul, it’s not that they should stay out of politics. The problem is that when deep pocket entities — be they individuals, corporations, unions or whatever — give really serious amounts of cash to a politician, they expect to get something in return: they are buying a piece of that politician. This is not democracy; it is corrupt oligarchy.
Walker, I see your point but it costs money to “stay in politics”. If people want to group together to spend their money to let their representatives know how they feel that isn’t a bribe it’s participation. But I think you and I have already agreed to disagree on this one.
They are a classic interest group. I agree with walker on this one when you can gather a small group of people who want something from the government, in this case jobs and benefits, they can influence the government by buying influence they do this at the expense of the interests of millions of people. The same goes for corporations or even individuals.
Its a classic scheme, because at the margin how does an increase in a prison guards salary or protection of her job hurt me? Well it is probably only a couple of cents out of my taxes as it is spread across millions of New York taxpayers, but it REALLY benefits this one small group, so they have the incentive to buy the influence. The problem however is that there are thousands of those groups all getting favors. Thus we no longer really have a government based on Democratic principles but on the ability to pay and organize.
A Libertarian view is that this is impossible to stop whenever the government provides resources for ANYTHING interests groups will have an incentive to organize and capture that prize, diverting it to their personal gains.
So Mervel what is your solution? Everyone act only as an individual in politics? Like you say that favors only wealthy individuals. You can’t pretend that modern media does not exist. The internet has leveled the playing field but only to some extent. What is the alternative? I guess the idea here is some kind of “free market” concept for politics.
The more you have a rules based system the better off you will be. For example you could have a standard for prisons, how many we need would be pre-determined by a formula the same would hold for which prisons to close. If you didn’t have base closing commissions we would never close a single military base for example.
The other option is simply say it is illegal for people or groups who have a material fiscal interest in legislation, to contribute anything to anyone in government.
Our laws are essentially written by interest groups, the guys we have in congress are simply not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to write detailed legislation on the various industries so they turn the process over to the “experts” who are FROM that industry for business.
“The other option is simply say it is illegal for people or groups who have a material fiscal interest in legislation, to contribute anything to anyone in government. ”
We all have a “material fiscal” interest in legislation. That leaves us with no one to do it.
I mean benefiting through getting a paycheck directly from the government. This would rule out government unions, Defense contractors, a good portion of the medical industry etc. from sitting down and writing legislation that then gives them money.
You are correct we all have a fiscal interest, so why should only those who are benefiting have a say?
I honestly don’t have a good answer though. The above will NEVER happen because the same groups have the organizational power to funnel money to politicians to get them elected. It is a never ending cycle, the bigger government grows the more corrupt it will become, it is simply the nature of the beast.
You know whats funny, it appears everyone seems to know so much about this but yet not nearly have the truth is spoke of here. All Unions contribute to political campaigns but that does not get them a promise of better treatment. As for “Prison Guards” and their Union, if you actually looked into it, they have been without a contract for over three years and have had any raises in three years. They have just closed 9 prisons/camps (which I am sure affected those areas economically), laid off 800 officers, relocated and transported inmates(on the taxpayers dime) to already overcrowded facilities. So the Union’s contributions got them NOTHING! No pretty benefits, no monetary compensations if anything the Correction Officers lost out. And someone said to let the prison population go, how do you even suggest that. Its easy to cast judgment and stones but do you honestly think any of you could do that job? And the stress it puts on a family of a Correction Officer is unreal, you have no idea so before you speak of things you know nothing of, research first and get the truth instead of spreading lies and garbage.