Bernie’s troll commentary was priceless.
Also, they get plenty of free media by being actual candidates, so that gives them a platform to get those messages out there. Even if some of it is diverted to getting people interested in voting for them, it seems reasonable to believe that most of their supporters will vote for whoever they eventually endorse. If they endorse and campaign for the nominee, then even the portion of their budget spent building support for themselves isn’t entirely wasted.
Steyer and Yang suffer from the same fatal flaw in my opinion. They have never held an elected office. I think there is strong argument to be made that not only is Trump a shitty person, but he is a shitty incompetent president because he has never held an elected office before. Steyer and Yang and undercut that argument. More importantly, the Presidency isn’t an entry level political office, unless you’ve organized a multi-national coalition to invade a major power, you have to have been governor, mayor, senator, congressman to be a good President. Business experience just isn’t that relevant.
It wasn’t meant to be a dig, more an encouragement to stop trying to hide whatever your opinion may be. Anyone not looking for long form thoughts can just scroll on its no problem. At least, that’s my take on it.
Thanks Tim, I didn’t take it as such. :)
I am inclined to agree with this.
I know (?) you were joking, but frankly, to me, that isn’t far from the truth. I know the conservatives on here think that Capitalism and The Markets make for the most efficient system, but I see the word billionaire and I just think “damn that guy has overcharged his customers or underpaid his employees (probably both) so much that he’s extracted billions of dollars from the system for no good reason. What a shitheel”.
I used Google products for more than a decade and I never gave them a damn cent, I suspect that’s true for many of us on the forum… I finally bought Google WiFi and for $150 odd I payed solved the problem of getting WiFi in my cinderblock house that had I spend 10 years trying to solve. Just today after owning the WiFi product for 3+ years, I got free, fast, and efficient phone technical support. My Google Pixel phone was cheaper than Apple and had more feature than Samsung, but had reliability issues.
The average pay for Google employees is $115K and the starting pay is over $50K for account managers and graphic designers,which works out to be $25/hour. Not to mention a dazzling array of benefits.
I’m really curious who you think Larry Page, Sergi Brin, and Eric Schmidt have overcharged?
The people paying for advertising (which is where Google makes most of its money, unless I’m mistaken)? I mean, yes, I understand basic capitalism. The (theoretical) Commandments: You Charge What The Market Will Bear. If Someone Can Offer The Same Or Better Service For Cheaper, They Will Undercut You And Win. But, as an engineer friend of mine likes to say “In theory, theory and practice are the same thing. In practice… not so much”. As much as people want to believe in that shite, it’s just post-hoc justification.
Like I said, I just see those numbers, billions in the accounts of the execs, hundreds of billions in cash reserves for the corps, and all I can see is how inefficient the system is. So much cash being taken out of the system, not being used and sat on, or just used as leverage to bully smaller players and make even more cash. It’s crap.
Advertisers, investors and venture capitalists :) Which I guess makes google the good guys.
Seriously though, I don’t much like the idea of billionaires going into politics. They start off insulated from the concerns of the ordinary person to an extreme degree, something that the political bubble can only amplify. Also, in the US system, access to funds sidesteps a whole “proving yourself” step where you have to get established in the party organisation in order to effectively fundraise.
There’s a basic misunderstanding here. You were the product, not the customer. Now you’re both.
LOL that’s great
I don’t think pointing to experience as Mayor or Senator will be a very effective argument against the sitting POTUS. If you want to make an argument about Trump incompetence, it will be based on his actions and statements and general odor of shitshow, not on his lack of experience.