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Comment by jsaxton86 | Hacker News Reader

Lawrence Lessig argues that the fundamental problem in government is money. Getting elected is expensive, so candidates have to build a network of donors, which creates an obvious conflict of interest if they get elected. A decent introduction to Lessig's ideas can be found here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/...

Public financing of elections would be a definite step in the right direction and meets all of your constraints.

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It's worth noting that Occupy movement was started in the pursuit of one clear, simple, publicly and plainly stated goal: to get the money out of politics. [1]

Everyone who pushed forward the meme that the Occupiers had/have no clear agenda did nothing but expose their own ignorance, ineptitude or intellectual dishonesty.

[1] http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstre... "Beginning from one simple demand -- a presidential commission to separate money from politics"

To be fair, the confusing structure of anonymous, and the multitudes of 'alternative' press releases under the name of anonymous certainly confused the issue. As more people joined the occupy protests in SF, new issues started getting mixed in (from prosecution of banking board members to banning circumcision), and the press naturally published what was most interesting to the general public.

I'm sorry, but I just don't agree with that. This is the first time I've ever heard of that specific demand, and I've been actively seeking information about the movement.

Feel free to blame "the media," but I've personally asked more than a few people at Occupy to be specific about what they were demanding or what success looks like and I never heard anything like that. I heard a lot about jobs and employment. A bit about the banks having too much power. And one person talked a lot about middle east politics.

> "I've been actively seeking information about the movement."

You've been looking for information, yet never read the original call to Occupy? Or were you just keeping an eye out for more background information in what is provided to you by the press?

The former. I just told you that I talked personally to Occupiers. I wonder how many of them are aware that an "original call to Occupy" even exists.

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