[Railsify]

Members of Congress will use this event as a catalyst for fundraising, soon after the election they will draft legislation that threatens to control and/or regulate the tech giants. Shortly after that the lobbyists representing Big Tech get wind of this new legislation on the horizon and donations will flow like a river to the PACs and re-election campaigns, then the proposed legislation will be shelved.

[wdn]

If you see how much wealth the politicians, especially the one holding important position, you see why they want the job for a merely $200,000 a year.

Clinton and Obama got very wealth after their presidency. Pelosi wealth goes up many fold for becoming speaker of the house. Not only their wealth go up, everyone around them got a lot wealthier too.

[hooande]

Fame has a direct financial value. Any US president is among the most famous and well known people on earth.

trump will make more money from speaking appearances than he did from any of his businesses over the last several decades

[swarnie_]

This is what I've never understood about post presentient lives.

People like Trump and Bush can barely deliver a speech or speak coherently, who is paying to hear them attempt it??

[esja]

Difficult to prove, but many believe these sorts of payments are often a delayed bribe, for services rendered while in office. Look after us while you’re in power and we’ll look after you later. And other politicians watching this will notice, and will behave properly while they are in power as well.

[missedthecue]

On trump, I agree, but Bush? Didn't you see Bush's eulogy for his father? He is a skilled public speaker, in spite of his infamous gaffes.

[swarnie_]

I'll be honest i did not...

He hasn't had much air time over here since leaving office, my opinion of him is all drawn from 2000-2008.

[drcross]

People who want to say to their friends that they were in the same room as those people. It's social capital.

[hooande]

Corporate speeches are like Cameo for really rich people. People will pay for a personal message / attention from a celebrity. It doesn't matter what they say

[rtx]

Same people buying his paintings.

[wavefunction]

Why are you not mentioning any Republicans?

[kortilla]

Because there is plenty coverage of Republican sleaze. The mistake is in thinking one set of politicians is “doing the right thing”.

Additionally, as of tomorrow the Republicans are irrelevant when it comes to the selecting a party to lobby. Democrats control the house, the senate, and the presidency. Keep their coffers lined and you keep the regulation at bay.

[wernercd]

Except Democrats are promising regulation, taxes and the like.

IE the mistaken thought that Democrats won't remove 230 - despite Obama, Biden, etc all saying they want to remove it (if for different reasons than Trump, etc)

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/17/21070403/joe-biden-presid...

And with promises of Paris Accord, Green New Steal and removal of stuff like the Keystone Pipeline...

It's funny to think "democrat control" and "keep regulations at bay" could be included in the same paragraph.

[kortilla]

> It's funny to think "democrat control" and "keep regulations at bay" could be included in the same paragraph.

Well that’s been how Democrat control has worked out at the federal level for the last 50 years or so. Regulation does indeed get passed, but it’s against narrow industries (e.g. natural resource extraction).

Given the revolving door between the biggest tech companies and the Biden/Obama administration, I suspect that will magically escape anything beyond superficial changes.

[RobRivera]

clearly because of political astroturfing.

there I explicitly stated what you are insinuating with your simple question.

his/her point still stands; famous politicians gain wealth from said fame. can we stay on track here?

[harry8]

Yellen getting paid millions for public speaking to banks and hedge funds. And now she's going to regulate them. I'm sure those million dollar paychecks won't affect her judgement at all. I'm sure the insight based on intelligence and expertise, completely outside of getting an advantage understanding and/or influencing regulatory behaviour is what they all felt was worth the money.

I'm sure it's all completely legal but it's completely corrupt. The best we can hope for is she doesn't let these intended bribes influence her - and she may not.

Fame you say? Do you really believe that? If you do does it matter that the optics are foul and most won't agree? Square that when people are going broke and wondering about food and children's future when considering her millions in fees.

[alsetmusic]

> Why are you not mentioning any Republicans?

That’s a good point. It’s not like Trump’s holdings weren’t fed a line of patrons while he was in office. Seems odd to leave out the most prominent and recent example.

[Izkata]

Trump didn't make money off of the presidency, if anything he spent (2016-2017) or lost (2020) wealth: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/forbes-400-donald-tr...

[macg333]

Just because he didn't make money because he's a failure at business and his particular ventures were negatively affected by the coronavirus (the explanation given in your article) completely ignores that he funneled a substantial amount of tax payer dollars into his private ventures by spending so much time there with his security detail.

[bernulli]

That’s not what the article says at all. It says that his hotel businesses went south due to COVID. That’s orthogonal to the myriad ways he extracted money from being a president.

[Izkata]

...incorrect, that's the second dip only. The virus wasn't around for the first.

[lostlogin]

His tax returns show he didn’t make any to start with - or possibly more accurately, he just avoided saying he made any money and thereby didn’t pay any tax.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-tru...

[seanmcdirmid]

I’m betting he did his taxes right and really is just insolvent.

[chillwaves]

Does this comment account for his $500M+ "loan"?

[pfisch]

I honestly think you'd have a hard time finding any politician that made more than trump from his office. Mar a lago was literally a place to go pay 200k so you could lobby trump.

His re-election campaign ran out of money! How could that even be possible without massive embezzlement!?

His fake stop the steal con pulled in over 200 mil! Most of that is going to end up in his pocket.

[triceratops]

You mean other than charging the Secret Service for his weekly stays at his resort? Or how lobbyists in DC made sure to book at a Trump property?

[swader999]

Trump apparently decreased his wealth severely.

[indigochill]

> then the proposed legislation will be shelved

My bet is when legislation appears it will pass and subtly entrench the incumbents. Win-win!

[austincheney]

> to control and/or regulate the tech giants

What is it exactly that qualifies Facebook to be a tech company? A database? A website? They display advertising.

[tsimionescu]

Perhaps it is the fact that they are one of the largest employers of software engineers in the world.

[austincheney]

That’s it? Expedia employs over 15000 software engineers, far more than anything else, and they aren’t a software company. Samsung has more software engineers than most tech companies have total employees and they aren’t a software company.

[Railsify]

They move information around using software datacenters and the internet.