Yep, always follow the money.

Yep. I’m realizing more and more how we need all branches of our government to protect the average person from those who are rich enough to outlast them in court (if one side can afford a lawsuit and three appeals, and the other side quite simply can’t, and if a settlement doesn’t have to be paid to them until after the whole set of appeals is settled: even if they’re in the right they’re stuck unless they can get pro bono help).

But it’s getting down into even very-local politics and just… ick. It was hard enough to figure out who would likely do the best job when it was just the city council members and no bonus money helping them! (Although in our city the League of Women Voters sponsors town halls and debates so you can actually get statements out of the candidates rather than just shiny fliers, and our local newspaper interviews whatever candidates will agree to an interview, which is useful; but more people vote based on the fliers or, more commonly, just party line; but at least some of the information is *available* rather than not even that!)

But, fundamentally, the average person couldn’t have gotten the No Surprises Act put into place without the US legislative branch taking it up; the average person couldn’t have required airlines to present their policies on cancelled flights such that ordinary people could choose between airlines with that information in hand; the average person couldn’t have sued Capitol One for deceptive account interest practices; the average person couldn’t have crafted and fought for a rule to require it to be as easy to unsubscribe as to subscribe to any service; and individual regular-people couldn’t have forced phone companies to make it *possible* to transfer your phone number within some limitations, making it more possible for the average person to switch cell carriers and forcing the market to become at least somewhat competitive.

And the more companies have immunity from consequences for very bad – but profitable – behavior, the more we’ll realize that (as we sit hours on hold and then get hung up on as we try to get an incorrect charge removed, or as those phone lines to Actual Humans get cut and our only recourse becomes “talking” to an AI chatbot until we give up, or as surprise fees and double-billing frequency and other charges increase from the near-monopolies, because hey, free money, the shareholders would be mad if we *didn’t* maximize profits…).

(I mean: Google and Apple have a near-monopoly on phone app stores and both charge 30% of revenues [including donations made to small game developers or artists through apps]; this is… kind of a *lot* and most people have to get their apps from one place or the other; Amazon charges more – I think it’s 40%? – for purchases made through their website *and* requires that you not sell the same products for a lower price anywhere else including on your own website; the choices are limited for smaller businesses because if you don’t sell on Amazon, you’re losing a large number of customers who, if they’re looking to buy something, will only search Amazon and buy the thing that looks closest, but then the 40% and the requirement about pricing elsewhere on the same item being the *same*; there isn’t a winner there except Amazon.)

We need our elected officials and the service branches of the federal government to be working for the people of the US. But most of the money – for electoral campaigning (and for lobbyists, and “lawsuit settlements” in frivolous lawsuits opportunely timed for when the company desires a merger, or campaign donations when a pardon is wanted) comes from the people and entities who already have those spare million+ dollars. I… do not happen to have a few spare millions of dollars lying around, personally, nor the time for lawsuits.

Anyway! Thank you for looking into it and for being an informed voter, and I hope all the elections go whatever way would be actually-best for people in the US, not just extremely-rich people in the US!