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Re: Google in politics

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On 2014-04-18, Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> wrote:
> "[...] Behind-the-scenes machinations demonstrate how Google — once a
> lobbying weakling — has come to master a new method of operating in
> modern-day Washington, where spending on traditional lobbying is
> rivaled by other, less visible forms of influence.
>
> That system includes financing sympathetic research at universities
> and think tanks, investing in nonprofit advocacy groups across the
> political spectrum and funding pro-business coalitions cast as
> public-interest projects. [...]"
>

I guess the transition was inevitable, wasn't it: the inexorable slide,
one small decision at a time, as new and more managers come on board,
each one more removed from the founders and that naive, now historical
mantra - something about evil - and instead it's just business, after
all.  Or maybe they realized that at their position, size, and ambition,
they need a cooperative regulatory environment and sympathetic
lawmakers, and so on.  Or maybe they studied and have learned from the
legal woes Microsoft endured over the 90s and 00s by having done a less
effective job at lobbying (or hell, maybe the opposite!).  Either way, I
guess it's hard to retain the spirit of a plucky startup when you're at
tens of thousands of employees and billions of dollars.  It takes a
corporate mindset to keep piloting the ship, and those corporate types
all speak a language of their own.

Doesn't really bode well for the consumer though.  Although I guess it
almost never does.

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Google in politics Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-04-18 11:42 +0100
  Re: Google in politics RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-04-18 20:58 +0000

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