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Finance: What are the economics of government lobbying? 3 Views


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What are the economics of government lobbying? Lobbying, which is the act of organizing campaigns and other kinds of activities in order to pressure and influence government officials in matters of policy that are important to the lobbying group’s supporters, is a big business. Billions of dollars are spent annually, and tens of thousands of people are employed as lobbyists in the USA.

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Transcript

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what are the economics of government lobbying

00:07

Pay lobbyist a siri's of consulting fees They don't make

00:10

a commission hope that they can tilt the balance of

00:13

loved in your direction And then you win a lucrative

00:17

government contract to buy weapons from you Like the self

00:20

guided tickle rocket you know that makes enemies laugh themselves

00:24

to death art least does some nasty stomach cramps Yeah

00:28

all right well then you lather you rinse and you

00:30

repeat So what is a lobbyist anyway Well the term

00:34

got its name from would be friends of congressmen and

00:37

friends of senators and friends of other politicos who would

00:41

stand around literally in the lobby of the halls of

00:44

government waiting for a mucky muck muck to come out

00:47

And for ninety eight seconds while they were walking down

00:50

the hall you know to take a much needed whizz

00:52

have their ear chewed off about money needed for a

00:55

new tattoo removal program or a grant for the montana

01:00

sheep workaholics anonymous initiative or for a new motorized shoe

01:05

rack for the first lady custom designed by tesla itself

01:09

a tickle weapon builder wants the government to buy a

01:11

billion bucks worth of tickle bombs from them tio use

01:14

as an epic april fool's joke on our canadian kyle's

01:18

up north there cost to build five hundred mil so

01:21

they make half a billion dollars in operating profits from

01:24

this sale Well how much can they afford to pay

01:26

the lobbyist A k a the sales guy who will

01:29

make that deal possible Answer a lot like maybe four

01:33

hundred ninety nine million dollars and they don't actually pay

01:36

him a commission that would be illegal These air just

01:39

set up as consulting contracts to you know leverage his

01:43

role attacks and all the people that lobbyists knew for

01:46

years and years and years So it is massively worth

01:49

a while for the tickle weapon producer to pay a

01:52

lobbyist or ten of them a million bucks a year

01:54

in consulting fees so that you know the company wins

01:58

that lucrative government contract and closes the deal and it

02:02

doesn't just apply to a weapons manufacturers that old age

02:05

home congresswoman promised her village Yeah well what's to stop

02:10

her leaning on the weapons producer to donate a bunch

02:13

of money to building it if the weapons producer wins

02:17

That lucrative tickle bomb contract Well maybe call it tickle

02:21

pines geriatric center with a happy face painted on the

02:24

tickle bomb says peace under it Yeah something like that

02:28

and the politician muses And while the bombs are going

02:30

to get made anyway the contract will happen anyway At

02:34

least this way my granny's will have nice massage chairs

02:37

and a place to die with dignity and not from

02:40

being tickled to death Welcome to lobby Come on down 00:02:43.205 --> [endTime] take a hot shower

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