Member-only story
Stable Economy: CRIMINALIZE Lobbying
I have made previous videos saying that corporate lobbying should be made into a criminal offense. However, those videos were always geared in a political and human rights direction. This time I am taking it in a different direction and focusing on the economic side.
One thing to understand is that some countries already treat lobbying as a criminal offense to varying degrees. They may not impose prison time for lobbyists and lobbied officials but there are definitely prices to pay. These countries view lobbying as exactly what it is- legalized bribery. Unethical and unacceptable.
I am not going to claim all lobbying involves business dealings. However, there is often an overlap where the dealings are not purely business. In all cases, it involves finance and economic elements. Consider AIPAC and their influence on the US government. This relationship between the lobbying arm of the Israeli government and our own government moves in many directions, involving massive campaign donations, arms sales, business arrangements, corporate agreements and, of course, economic aid to Israel from the US government at the expense of the US taxpayer. Lots of people are profiting from these arrangements but it’s not the US taxpayers.
