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Bribery is illegal everywhere.
If you don't want to be so simplistic...

Two candidates are running for office. One of them believes in ideas that would benefit your company. The other opposes your company, swears to destroy it by all legal means.
Which candidate gets your contribution?
Do you want to call that a bribe?

The other thing money does is to get access. Your company is suffering under regulation that is driving you to ruin, and throwing your employees and their families onto the street to starve.
You make a fairly substantial contribution to a politician who never cared about you before. He gets curious about your problems, and you get to talk to him; maybe he accepts a dinner invitation.
Are we bribing anybody yet?

The politician listens to you, and feels that the creation of starving widows and orphans is not an appropriate regulatory function. So he asks questions and investigates, and maybe things improve for you.

If you don't give money, on the other hand, then the huge contributions from your competitor that got those miserable rules into place, and resulted in you being charged as a monopoly, will be totally unanswered.
Attention costs money, and has become an ordinary cost of doing business for all.

How's that for slightly less simplistic?
Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 11/12/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Ballmer is one shrewd CEO  Mike Cox | 11/12/03
Re: Ballmer  dw@... | 11/12/03
You sir...  Mike Cox | 11/12/03
Well,that's reassuring  dw@... | 11/13/03
when does free count as a competitor?  lmaxwell | 11/13/03
Welcome back, Mike...  John Le'Brecage | 11/12/03
Damn, I was aiming for the "Resident Buffoon" slot!  dw@... | 11/13/03
Go Microsoft!  jellyclock | 11/12/03
Ya right.  LinuxHippie | 11/12/03
assume makes an ass of u and me  jellyclock | 11/12/03
Bribery is illegal everywhere.  Anton Philidor | 11/12/03
re : Bribery is illegal everywhere.  lmaxwell | 11/12/03
Actually, I'd call that extortion  rapson | 11/12/03
Thanks for clearing that up for me  michael-t | 11/12/03
Yes, there's an important distinction  Anton Philidor | 11/12/03
Too Confident...  LinuxHippie | 11/12/03
ya but  blahblahblah | 11/12/03
Not be bought?  Ardian Daka | 11/12/03
Fuzzy thinking  Bill Weisgerber | 11/12/03
And this is bad?  John Le'Brecage | 11/12/03
Only bogus arguments...  MacCanuck | 11/12/03
How about it?  Bill Weisgerber | 11/12/03
Are you related to No Axe Bit?  MacCanuck | 11/13/03
put the blame  lmaxwell | 11/13/03
Is it Time to Catch Uo?  ShadeTree | 11/14/03
re: Nothing will fuel the already considerable migration to Open Source fas  Salman Pak | 11/12/03
1% is a few million units  Bill Weisgerber | 11/12/03
no monopoly....  blahblahblah | 11/12/03
The U.S. can't be Believed  cygnet@... | 11/12/03
prescendent  ryusen | 11/12/03
so subservient aren't you ?  blahblahblah | 11/12/03
M$ will go down!  screaming silence | 11/12/03
the only time criminals go down  ryusen | 11/12/03
It'll be interesting to see if the EU has the b@lls to go up against MS ...  Plain Logic | 11/12/03
?  lmaxwell | 11/13/03

What do you think?

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