Some clips:
---
In "The Broken Contract", his essay in the latest edition of
Foreign Affairs, New Yorker staff writer George Packer argues
that the source of widening US inequality is to be found when.
"Organized money and the conservative movement seized the
moment back in 1978 to begin a massive, generation-long
transfer of wealth to the richest Americans." ---
[...]
---
A paper released Monday by economists from Harvard Business School
and the International Monetary Fund quantifies lobbying and makes
an important finding: barriers to entry are high, therefore
surprisingly few firms are able to directly influence the political process. ---
[...]
Conclusion:
---
This concentration of power can't ultimately be good for anyone
save for the firms themselves and K-street. The voices lawmakers
hear don't reflect an accurate sample of affected people, and if
politicians and lobbyists can predict who will kick up a fuss
then it inclines politics to be depressingly predictable and
transactional. Regulatory capture becomes commonplace. It took
us a long-time to reach an open-access social order and it's not
a good idea to give it up.
When it's folks from the IMF and HBS making these points, and not
just New Yorker staff writers, it might be time to do look again
at them rules. ---
Links and footnotes in the original,
/jordan