Piggybacking On The Special Interests, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

This piece looks at the wrong data. You suggest that correlations be examined between political contributions and donors’ profitability. The latter component, profitability, needs to be changed to return on investment for political contributions. Warren Buffett has said that there is no higher return that a corporation can earn, historically, than through the investment of cash in the political process. Dollar for dollar he thinks that this activity out earns all other profitmaking ventures. You need to identify dollars invested/contributed against dollars returned. Overall profitability of a corporation,rather than political dollars returned to the contributor, will dilute the figure. No company can earn, in all its other activities, as much as it can earn through political contributions. This is why, in market speak, we have only scratched the surface for political contributions. As more and more people become aware of the returns, the higher the number of corporations that will engage in the political process.

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan