Quote:
Originally Posted by tirsales
It's actually far easier to influence the course of action a national institution is taking (e.g. via votes) then to influence the course of action of a private company...
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Sorry to go a little off-topic but how do you figure this? In an election you are always voting on a bundle of policies (and they very rarely involve anything about institutions like libraries). So even if there was a candidate that promised to change the policies of the national library (extremely unlikely), what if I hate her stance on the other policies. Unlike the marketplace, you can't pick and choose what to support. And regardless, in any reasonable size population the chance of your vote changing the outcome of an election is much smaller than the probability of winning the lottery.
I'm not saying individuals can readily change Google's policies but they can easily stop contributing to the company. Whereas suppose I decide my public library is a horrible waste of money and I never want to patronise them again. How long would it take for me to rally enough votes to enable me to stop contributing taxes to this institution?