Kieran Healy: As always what strikes me in these cases is that the sheer *value for money* of political bribery is just incredible.

As always what strikes me in these cases is that the sheer *value for money* of political bribery is just incredible.

30k cmon man

have the self respect to take bigger bribes

Menendez should - quite literally - be the new gold standard. Make corruption expensive again!

It’s Trump who should be the Gold Standard (utterly abandoned, known as extremely hazardous by anyone serious about policy or finance, only pined for by cranks who immediately show their lack of understanding whenever they express support)

What? What does that have to do with this?

People keep using the idiom “gold standard” to mean something acceptable, even now that the gold standard itself is unacceptable. In parallel, Trump sold out not only his own country, but all of NATO, for some loan forbearance, & is a better example of thinking bigger.

Hochul was only supposed to be the graft and corruption middle manager, she didn't expect Cuomo to get shitcanned, cut her some slack

I know, right? Most cars cost more than that. At least you could have gotten a Lexus out of it or something.

Hey that could buy you a mainstream car, CPO'd if not new

maybe 20 years ago i read someone (in slate, of course) making the argument that the low amounts of money being spent proved ipso facto that there just wasn't that much political corruption in the US.

Lol

It might have been discussing this very influential academic article: www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=... I don't think this article shows there is no corruption/political inequality. It does raise good questions about how the money-to-political-outcomes pipeline could work.

Why is There so Little Money in U.S. Politics?www.aeaweb.org (Winter 2003)

yeah, it rings a bell

Much political science research suggests that $30K didn't turn Hochul into a bonehead; they gave her $30K because she was already a bonehead

My favorite accusation was Rick Perry approving HPV vaccines in Texas for $8K.

It's quite possible she's just postponing it until after the election.

State level politicians in the United States can usually be had for low five figures. My guess is that the culture of donations and fundraising basically socializes successful politicians into the practice of accepting small bribes. They see it as an important element of their identity.

Now consider that this behavior is identical to that performed by every NGO seeking funding from private foundations and it's easy to understand America's entire social system as one big hand doing the "gimme" gesture.

Every polity that ever was and now is operates in this way.

kavanaugh cost only like $500,000

Add the season tickets to that

My moderate platform is “abolish state legislatures” and my radical one is “abolish states”.

Based solely on my own cynical nature, I suspect the visible donations are to provide a fig leaf for the politician's support so people don't look for the much larger payments, jobs, contracts, vacations, favours etc made in more covert ways They're small because they're not the real payoffs 🤷‍♂️

This one. Everyone claims to hate money in politics so there's lots of regulation on it and it's very tightly tracked. So while there is quid pro quo donations to policy to some extent, the big money is, like, making the secret service stay in your hotel chain or whatever.

Or, I don't know....a nice new luxury RV or private school tuition for a nephew, or buying your mom's house and wiping away a debt...just wild guesses, really.

I wonder if part of the value is how this is seen as part of a long-term support. Like, if a collective of cyclists clubbed together and collected 30k their bribe would be 'worth' less because it would be seen as an isolated one-off.

Which is even more bonkers when you compare their perception of the monetary value versus the actual political value, as in groups of humans coming together and doing things for a shared purpose... They completely devalue the actually engaged community!

This is just one billionth data point leading to the inevitable conclusion that democracy and capitalism are fundamentally incompatible.

also depressing how little money it often takes, even if this isn’t the best example

Honestly, I don’t think she even needed to be bribed. She sees the kind of wealthy suburban people who oppose congestion pricing as her friends and peers and her real constituents. She probably thinks she was just helping out a friend with a problem

she was vocally in favor of cp for all of her term - even just a couple.weeks ago the sudden, 180 degree shift is hard to explain

A months old donation doesn’t explain it tho. Hochul is just an idiot with no deeply held convictions

I agree that connecting this small old donation to it is tenuous

Doing the right thing is hard when it’s very unpopular.

Why no source for the poll? (Looks like the story is from the post, lol) I’m skeptical of poll that says that roughly the same % of city residents who *don’t* own a car oppose CP (in the public comments the ratio of pro:con was roughly the same as don’t:do own cars)

I pulled the graphic from a NY Post article, but the polling is Siena so it's presumably sound. nypost.com/2024/04/22/u...

NY voters overwhelmingly reject new Manhattan $15 'congestion' toll...nypost.com New York voters overwhelmingly reject having to pay a new $15 "congestion" toll to enter Midtown Manhattan, a stunning new statewide poll released Monday reveals.

I remain skeptical. I hope that the MTA board does the right thing and votes to go ahead with it anyway (they won’t, but I can dream) The poll is here (mta cp question not shown so 🤷‍♂️). Looking at the crime questions—people are fucking stupid scri.siena.edu/wp-content/u...

scri.siena.edu

Back when he wasn't an utterly useless turd Matt Taibbi did a good sting on this kind of thing and noted just how cheaply American politicians could be bought compared to their Russian counterparts.

yeah I constantly see telecom giants literally buy shitty, anti-competitive state laws, or the approval of a terrible merger, for a $10k donation or so

We should meme Hochul=traffic into the minds of every voter nationwide - “We’re sitting in Hochul traffic” - “Expect a Hochul slowdown on I-95”

$15B for New York metro commuters <-> $30K for Hochul personally. I know Albany is legendarily corrupt but this sucks SO MUCH

I think this is a little too simplistic. Lots of pro-congestion politicians took auto dealer money. They hedge their bets. I think she was eating shit from Long Island donors & well-heeled vacation home owners. She’s also, demonstrably more worried about re-elect than a typical NY Republican

The title upsets people, but this is one of the more insightful social science papers on campaign finance: Given the lax U.S. laws and the huge potential returns, it's actually a puzzle why there isn't more political spending. pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

www.gocomics.com/calvinandhob...

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 08, 1992 | GoComics.comwww.gocomics.com April 08, 1992

Senator Brian Schatz sold out the safety of the water in Honolulu for under $300,000 over a period of years. Our lives mean nothing to politicians.

@ketanjoshi.co reminds me of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_f... ( the fact gm got fined one dollar) for burning trams ect

Taken for a Ride - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

When I was driving a cab in the 90s, a passenger remarked on high gas prices. I said they should be even higher, which surprised her. I started on one of my pet rants, about how the streetcars were destroyed to sell more cars, & she freaked out. "I recently produced a documentary about that!"

I’m reminded of @chrislhayes.bsky.social’s old tweets comparing the value of the fossil fuel industry and how the world economy is shaped around it to slavery and cotton in the 19th century

here's the link to the article www.levernews.com/big-auto-and...

Big Auto And The Death Of Traffic Congestion Reformwww.levernews.com New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reversed course and blocked congestion pricing at the last minute — months after taking more than $30,000 from state auto dealers.