Washington would like us all to believe this. Not all companies work in that fashion. It’s foolish and unproductive. Yeah there are some but I’ve never worked for a company like that and never would. I would bet that the companies they talk about are union.
GM? GE? Goldman Sachs? Monsanto? ADM? A lot of companies use lobbyists to write legislation and then hand it to the politicians on a silver platter.
Companies that don't play along are taking a risk. Taxes and regulations can cut them down to size at any moment. Companies that help the government achieve its goals stand to win big against their compeititors. Look at ObamaCare and what it does to small insurance companies. The big insurance companies are loving that, because the politicians are eliminating their competition.
It really is economic fascism.
Eisenhower warned about the "Military-Industrial Complex" and everyone assumed that the problem was defense-related. It's really much bigger. It's the corporate world helping politicians gain power, and the politicans helping (some) companies gain wealth.
We are in a bad place, and no one should fool themselves into thinking that this is what Capitalism looks like. We abandoned the free market long ago.
Untrue. I've seen analyses of the average ROI on money invested in lobbying and campaign contributions versus R&D, marketing and other more traditional ways of getting business.
Massive differential in favor of "political" investments.
It is, IMO, unethical, but it is by no means unprofitable.