February 02, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
We live in a time where many corporations find it more profitable to spend money on lobbying Congress for special privileges than on improving their products and services. This situation allows corporations to achieve unearned and undeserved profits (at taxpayer's expense)by changing the rules of the economic game in their favor rather than by playing that game well and fairly according to the established rules.
They also spend shareholders money to influence elections in the hope of getting people into office whom they can bribe or otherwise influence. At present they are able to conceal this spending from their shareholders and the public.
This deplorable situation facilitates the further corruption both of our political class and of the business community. It makes American business less competitive in the world by favoring corporations that spend on politics and lobbying over companies that invest in R&D to improve their products and services.
It's long past time to end secret political spending and lobbying by corporations.
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require all corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
The purpose of American business is not to generate profits by extracting money from the taxpayer through lobbying Congress and influencing elections. It is to produce and sell useful products and services that offer the best value available anywhere in the world, and so to earn a deserved fair profit for their shareholders, while serving society.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Thomas Maginnis