I literally just came to HN after browsing slate.com for a bit, currently on their front page is an article about a railroad company that sent 86% of their lobbying money to Trump and GOP PACs this last election cycle. Half of this company's revenue is based in pesos and susceptible to dollar/peso fluctuations and its core business is related to moving goods back and forth between the US and Mexico. Trump took dead aim at free trade, and NAFTA in particular on the campaign trail. Self interest seems to play no part in who people (and companies, thank you Citizens United) choose to support.
It doesn't concern me at all. It didn't concern me in 2016 when all these companies helped Trump and his campaign, and when none of them banned him despite repeated violations of their T&Cs. Now that it serves the companies to act they're all starting to act. Companies are largely bipartisan. They do what they need to do to stay in business and maximize their profit. That means playing politics and shifting from one side to the other when the wind changes.
The time to be concerned would be if these companies choose politics over profits.
The article paints their motivation as naked self-serving hypocrisy:
> One of the mainstay companies of Koch Industries, the Kochs’ conglomerate, is a major producer of gasoline and asphalt, and also makes seatbelts, tires and other automotive parts. Even as Americans for Prosperity opposes public investment in transit, it supports spending tax money on highways and roads.
There is no shortage of Republican billionaires having their way with American politics for personal gain and anyone who is paying attention is repulsed by it.
Look at Harold Hamm of Continental Resources oil company. He was asked to be Trump's energy secretary but he didn't want to leave the company he started which made him worth $25 billion.
Instead he has a superpac that funds Republican candidates and causes, and he flies his jet to Washington to schmooze politicians into supporting the oil industry through policy making.
He busses employees to the capital and hands them signs to protest bills which would raise taxes on the oil industry.
He emailed employees encouraging them to vote against medical marijuana because it's corrupting society.
I wanted politics out of boardrooms a long time ago!
Conveniently left out are all the Republican-friendly companies and industries which do the same (and more). Automobile, equipment manufacturers, aircrafts, fast food, clothing, sports leagues...everyone bows down to money. This is the obvious result of our capitalist system. What's the point in calling out a handful of tech companies?
FB isn't pro-Republican, but forget about that - what bothers me these clowns are endorsing crony capitalism when they say private companies should kowtow to those who can give them something in return and now that's "anti-Conservatives", wink wink.
Why not kowtow to China or Russia, if they can give you more in return?
But it is the anti-trump media (NY Times, Guardian, etc) that are beating the drums the hardest.
What they understand is that these companies only care about money. When Democrats were in power they were happy to help the Democrats in exchange for favors. Now the Republican are in power they will be happy to help the Republicans in exchange for favors.
Alphabet is even willing to make someone else CEO because Eric Schmidt was too closely tied to the other side. That shows everyone how friendly they are willing to be.
Not so sure about that. Many businesses are upset at the import tariffs complaining it will affect them. We also have many labor unions cautiously optimistic about support ftom the current admin.
Let’s also not forget that while Repubs have traditionally been pro business, Dems, since the 80s have also got cozy with business and get humongous donations from corps —something which was not the case pre 1980s.
This headline seems... misleading. There's only one high places foe mentioned, and that's Trump. Every other high level official mentioned seems to be doing Trump's bidding on this.
Also, how is having someone high up intervening in a business process a big violation of free market principles? I don't recall the article mentioning this either. As I think about it, this just reeks of crony capitalism. Didn't we just (2008 or so) decide that was a bad way to do an economy?
Isn't the NYT slant generally in favor of laissez faire free markets? Why the switch here?
What is “corporate interests”, exactly? Biggest corporations today are overwhelmingly aligned with the Democratic Party, though in fact the oil industry is pretty much the only exception. Look at who they donate money to. At best, you might ask why Republican Party is putting their oil interests ahead of everyone else.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/01/23/kansas_city_s...
Edit: expanded on why a for profit company being pro-Republican would be against its own self interest.
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