The INDUCE Act, Part 3...

I'm not bothering with quotes today, and I will have links galore, I suspect. Be warned.

The INDUCE act is in consideration today. I wish I had C-SPAN, because I'd be glued to the tube to see how the debate and voting goes.

This is a law which could conceivably make PCs illegal to manufacture in the US. Think about that. Think of the number of businesses which are not only largely computer-dependent, but would actually be incapable of operation without them.
Banks.
The NYSE.
NASDAQ.
Blockbuster Video.
McDonalds.

This law is an immense threat to our way of life.

Now, I've heard comments from many people who live outside the US, not only on this, but on many issues, which give me the notion that people outside the US have their heads in the sand.

Let me explain.

See, people in other countries seem to think that the US is somehow not connected to their economic wellbeing, and would in fact cause no problems whatsoever if our economy were to melt down overnight.

Sadly, this is simply not true.

Let's start with the government. Googling reveals a few key agencies within our government, each responsible for some aspect of foreign aid: USAID gives an appropriations budget for FY 2004 in excess of 18 BILLION dollars.

UN-sponsored Official Development Assistance from the US to other nations was almost 16 BILLION dollars in 2003; so far we're up to what, 34 billion? Chump change, I tell you!

The general, non-specific "Foreign Operations" budget for 2002 was $15 billion - up to 49 billion so far - Iraq's Freedom Fund Contingent Emergency Reserve gaffled another $25 billion, bringing us up to 74 billion dollars.

But that's nothing! Foreign Military Aid for 2003 alone was another 4 billion, the State Department has another $9 billion to throw around, non-USAID related "loans and grants" account for another $11 billion a year, bringing us to a grand total of $89 billion in direct, immediate federal aid to other countries, from a google search for "US foreign Aid."

Now, that's not the whole story, of course. See, US corporations do trillions of dollars of business in foreign countries a year, providing jobs world-wide, providing money world-wide, and most importantly of all, letting foreign companies buy stock in them, world-wide.

See, there's the trick. If the US economy should collapse, those US companies would be hurt, probably killed, by their cross-investment with other US companies. The foreign companies which had invested in the US comapnies would also be hurt directly, as their own holdings become worthless, but also indirectly - the more foreign companies suffering economic damage, the more likely that they will have cross invested in one another as well, thus worsening the blow.

This is true of any major country to some degree, but the economy of the US is the world's biggest, and therefore would have the most far-reaching effects were it to collapse. Many citizens of the rest of the world love to bash the US, but if they were paying attention, they'd know that it's in their economic best interest to wish us good health and prosperity. We're all in this together.

Which brings me to my next point: some of us are more in this than others. The American media companies have given a really staggering amount of money to US politicians, under the guise of "political contributions." The companies often display a quite amazing partisan bias in their donations, but not always in the way you'd expect.

For example:

Each of the following companies gave over 55% of its contributions to the Democrats in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, with percentage and total contributed dollars:

• AOL Time Warner, 63%, 6.2 million dollars.


• Vivendi Universal, 65%, 3.4 million dollars.


• Viacom, 81%, 3.1 million dollars.


• CableVision Systems, 59%, 2 million dollars.


• Sony, 67%, 1.2 million dollars.


• Cox Communications, 56%, 340 thousand dollars.


• Discovery Communications, 90%, 312 thousand dollars.


• NBC, 77%, 250 thousand dollars.


• USA Interactive, 80%, 240 thousand dollars.


• Hearst, 68%, 180 thousand dollars.


• Liberty Media, 57%, 66.6 thousand dollars.


• Gannett, 57%, 35 thousand dollars.


• New York Times, 94%, 11.6 thousand dollars.

Next, the companies that did the same thing with the Republicans:

• News Corporation, 62% 1.7 million dollars.


• Charter Communications, 65%, 715 thousand dollars.


• Clear Channel Communications, 75%, 705 thousand dollars.


• Adelphia Communications, 77%, 289 thousand dollars.


• McGraw-Hill, 61%, 69 thousand dollars.


• Washington Post, 58%, $8200

And finally, the companies that donated fairly evenly between the two parties:

• Disney, 55D/45R, 2.8 million dollars.


• EchoStar Communications, 53D/47R, 2 million dollars.


• Comcast, 47D/53R, 1.2 million dollars.


• Hughes Electronics, 50D/50R, 261 thousand dollars. (The big winner for evenhandedness.)


• Tribune, 54D/46R, 189 thousand dollars.


• E. W. Scripps, 38D/53R/9I, 10 thousand dollars and the only one to give any significant percentage of its donations to the independents.

This info comes to you thanks to the wonderful folks at CapitolEye.org.

Now think about this for a second. For a total of over 26 million dollars in the last two election cycles, the media companies have been buying votes among the Congress, and this is why. Because the INDUCE Act allows them to determine what technology you can own, but more importantly, what you can build once you've invented it.

The chilling effect of this on our economy cannot be overestimated, and this Act should be beheaded and buried face down with a stake through its heart.