Money has transformed every watchdog, every independent authority. Medical doctors are increasingly gulled by the lobbying of pharmaceutical salesmen.
Thomas FrankRead
Money never seems to be interested in strengthening regulatory agencies, for example, but always in subverting them, in making them miss the danger signs in coal mines and in derivatives trading and in deep-sea oil wells.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote criticizes how financial interests often undermine regulatory agencies instead of supporting them to ensure safety and ethical practices.
Thomas Frank's quote highlights the tendency of financial interests to prioritize profit over safety and regulation. It suggests that money is often used to manipulate or weaken regulatory agencies that are supposed to monitor industries such as coal mining, derivatives trading, and deep-sea oil drilling, allowing for dangerous practices to continue unchecked. This reflects a broader concern about the relationship between financial power and public safety, emphasizing the potential consequences of allowing economic interests to dictate regulatory practices.
Themes
MoneyRegulationSafetyInterestAgenciesProfit
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about economic policies, one might say, 'As Thomas Frank observed, money tends to undermine regulations meant to protect us.'
More from Thomas Frank
All quotes →Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles; elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them.
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Corruption is uniquely reprehensible in a democracy because it violates the system's first principle, which we all learned back in the sunshiny days of elementary school: that the government exist to serve the public, not particular companies or individuals or even elected officials.
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Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad.
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This aesthetic quality, then, is what politics is all about. It's authenticity that separates winners from losers, good politics from bad, and he-man leader-types from consultant-directed puppet-boys.
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Just as the financial crisis has created toxic assets and 'zombie' financial institutions, so has it transformed conservatism into a movement of the living dead.
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