Meet the Phoneys...business advocacy goes both ways

I wrote on an email list and then later in a blog entry (about local retail development) that businesses want to make the most money for the least investment, and with the fewest problems.

There's nothing wrong with that.

A problem with regulation is that the system is gamed through lobbying. Businesses, with much more money and benefit from shaping how they are regulated, expend a lot of money to ensure that they do well.

This is nothing new. The Abramoff Scandal at the Federal level is just one example. But this happens every day.

In logging onto the Washington Post website today, there was a political advocacy ad from the Broadband Everywhere "Coalition" which is but another industry lobbying group up against another industry/lobbying group, the traditional phone companies. I do want "broadband everywhere" but I recognize at the same time that it's not like the companies really care about us as much as they do about access and getting the opportunity to make more money.

Still and all, it's quite difficult for ground-up citizen groups to compete with the traditional business and business-backed forces. There are tremendous imbalances in terms of financial and paid-for staff resources, as well as technical competence, access to technological resources, etc.

This is why I suggest that the "Office of People's Counsel" model used to "represent the public interest" with regard to public utility matters, including rate increases, needs to be extended to land use and planning issues wrt matters before Zoning Commissions, Boards of Zoning Adjustment, Planning Commissions, and Alcoholic Beverage Licensing.

Making citizens pay, like the $500,000 being charged to Clarksburg, Maryland residents fighting the failure of Montgomery County to adequately regulate development in their area, is unreasonable, and again is an instance of protecting citizen rights being more of a privilege of income rather than an income-neutral right of all citizens.

The Broadband Everywhere website is hot...



(Remember the line from the book Essence of Decision -- where you stand depends on where you sit... or how much money gets stuffed in your back pocket... Speaking of which, see this AP story about sports stadium lobbying for the Yankees on the part of Reggie Jackson, "Jackson Testifies for New Yankee Stadium.")

Index Keywords: growth-machine