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by Grustaf 1900 days ago
It's very hard to follow this article, but I'm mostly upset that it's apparently legal to directly promise voters money if they vote for you. Talk about moral hazard.
1 comments

It's really no different than campaigning on tax breaks, industry subsidies, infrastructure plans, or a million other things. All of these ultimately boil down to "Elect me, and I'm putting more money in your pocket."
It IS slightly different. In those cases it's much less direct, and the candidates at least tend to pretend that it's for some greater good. Here Biden literally said "vote for him and he'll put the cheque in the mail."

All pretence is gone. Talk about "naked (crony) capitalism".

I'd argue that removing the facade that anything else was going on is a positive outcome rather than a negative.

I'd also argue that promising stimulus payments when the country is facing an unprecedented global pandemic and all the knock on economic impacts is pretty reasonable, but I expect we disagree there as well.

Do you think he's appealing to people's inner economist - "vote for me because helicopter money is good for the economy" or to their greed?
I think that a huge amount of people in this country were and still are suffering from the economic impact of this virus and the related lockdowns and that desiring financial aid from the government to help support them in their time of need is not a matter of greed.
Regardless, do people vote because THEY want a cheque or because they think it’s what the country needs?