[sillysaurus3]

Do such comments have any effect? It's hard to overlook that money seems to drive American politics moreso than public opinion (with the exception of the presidential elections).

I think that YC will become increasingly prominent in politics, because the tech sector has to in order to maintain control of its own fate. It'll be interesting to see what other moves YC will make.

[tokenadult]

Public comments are routine in setting administrative law. (The concept is called notice-and-comment.) Congress gives the administering agency authority to make an administrative rule, and that rule can only happen after a public notice period about the proposed rule, during which any member of the public can comment on the proposed rule. Rules are often modified during the public comment period, which will be reflected when the rule is finally published.

Your point is well taken that well organized (not always well moneyed) narrow interest groups can often get their way in the legislative or administrative rule-making process simply by being organized and cohesive. That is why public-choice theory[1] suggests that representative democracy cannot always achieve disinterested action in favor of the abstract public good. But what we deal with is a system that is imperfect, but better than other systems of government that have been tried, in the comparison that Churchill popularized.[2]

[1] http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html

[2] http://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government

[dragonwriter]

> Do such comments have any effect?

Yes.

> It's hard to overlook that money seems to drive American politics moreso than public opinion

One of the ways that money drives regulatory politics is that having money means you can hire people who (1) understand the regulatory process, and (2) participate in open comment opportunities by submitting comments that are effective (particularly, by addressing the desired policy changes in terms of that address directly the points for which the regulatory agency has called for input.)

[fnordfnordfnord]

>Do such comments have any effect?

If I understand correctly, the process dictates that the FCC formulate responses to the concerns raised during the public comment stage.

And maybe later, after everything has been ruined, if we're lucky, at the future congressional special committee on FCC commissioner misconduct hearings, Kucinich or someone will rake Wheeler and his buddies over the coals for failing to address those concerns.