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Comment by aj_g | Hacker News Reader

> Politicians don't care about the will of the people at all, several studies have shown this.

Interesting. I was unaware studies had been done on this. Care to share any links?

Not parent but here you go: "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...

Politicians are routinely bought by those with narrow interests.

By coincidence, Planet Money recently did a podcast about automatically filling out tax returns in California:

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/episo...

tl;dr: In a pilot, 99% of people preferred the auto-filled returns, but the bill to make it law failed by one vote, because of Intuit and Grover Norquist.

you really don't need studies. look at the polling data of things that get passed. The AHCA is being rushed through despite being wanted by only 17% of the public [0].

0: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/poll-gop-trump-obamaca...

But the health care C level execs are getting big tax cuts, and they are repealing the 3.8% tax on some kind of investment income. So its good for everyone!

There was a study a read (that I can't find now), I think by MIT, that showed there was no correlation between what bills passed in the house/senate and the 'will of the voter' (what people wanted).

Until you took into account money. Then there was a correlation between what was passed and the 'will of the lobbyist'.

Really wish I could find that study again.

Video based on Princeton study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig&feature=youtu.be

I don't know if there are any studies, but the single-digit approval rating of Congress says it quite clearly.

Americans love Congress. The approval ratings are very, very high. The ratings you cite are wrong, because they show the wrong thing: they show what people think of other peoples' Congress members. American voters are very happy with their Congresspeople; that's why they keep re-electing them. They just don't like everyone else's Congress picks (esp. ones in the "other" party).

Interesting angle!

I don't know if Americans "love" congress, as much as we are just ignorant to who are what congress is. See someone from the other side, hate em, see familiar name on the ballot, vote for em.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Doesn't apply to the Senate.

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