AARP

  

The sound a dog makes when it bites its tongue. It's also the initials behind the American Association of Retired Persons. AARP has become a powerful lobbying group for, um, old people. "Old" here is defined as "over 50," which was, in fact, "old" 100 years ago. Today it's the zone of mid-life crises. AARP is a powerful political lobby these days, fighting to keep Social Security obligations in tact, among other things. AARP is also trying to be a kind of "CostCo" membership business which aggregates the considerable buying power of its members to extract volume discounts of...stuff. Sit Ubu. Good dog.

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Finance: What are the economics of gover...3 Views

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Finance allah shmoop what are the economics of government lobbying

00:07

Pay lobbyist a siri's of consulting fees They don't make

00:10

a commission hope that they can tilt the balance of

00:13

loved in your direction And then you win a lucrative

00:17

government contract to buy weapons from you Like the self

00:20

guided tickle rocket you know that makes enemies laugh themselves

00:24

to death art least does some nasty stomach cramps Yeah

00:28

all right well then you lather you rinse and you

00:30

repeat So what is a lobbyist anyway Well the term

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got its name from would be friends of congressmen and

00:37

friends of senators and friends of other politicos who would

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stand around literally in the lobby of the halls of

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government waiting for a mucky muck muck to come out

00:47

And for ninety eight seconds while they were walking down

00:50

the hall you know to take a much needed whizz

00:52

have their ear chewed off about money needed for a

00:55

new tattoo removal program or a grant for the montana

01:00

sheep workaholics anonymous initiative or for a new motorized shoe

01:05

rack for the first lady custom designed by tesla itself

01:09

a tickle weapon builder wants the government to buy a

01:11

billion bucks worth of tickle bombs from them tio use

01:14

as an epic april fool's joke on our canadian kyle's

01:18

up north there cost to build five hundred mil so

01:21

they make half a billion dollars in operating profits from

01:24

this sale Well how much can they afford to pay

01:26

the lobbyist A k a the sales guy who will

01:29

make that deal possible Answer a lot like maybe four

01:33

hundred ninety nine million dollars and they don't actually pay

01:36

him a commission that would be illegal These air just

01:39

set up as consulting contracts to you know leverage his

01:43

role attacks and all the people that lobbyists knew for

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years and years and years So it is massively worth

01:49

a while for the tickle weapon producer to pay a

01:52

lobbyist or ten of them a million bucks a year

01:54

in consulting fees so that you know the company wins

01:58

that lucrative government contract and closes the deal and it

02:02

doesn't just apply to a weapons manufacturers that old age

02:05

home congresswoman promised her village Yeah well what's to stop

02:10

her leaning on the weapons producer to donate a bunch

02:13

of money to building it if the weapons producer wins

02:17

That lucrative tickle bomb contract Well maybe call it tickle

02:21

pines geriatric center with a happy face painted on the

02:24

tickle bomb says peace under it Yeah something like that

02:28

and the politician muses And while the bombs are going

02:30

to get made anyway the contract will happen anyway At

02:34

least this way my granny's will have nice massage chairs

02:37

and a place to die with dignity and not from

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being tickled to death Welcome to lobby Come on down 00:02:43.205 --> [endTime] take a hot shower

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