It only LOOKS like bribery

[The One and Only...]

Originally Posted by mburbank

In your little system would you see anything wrong with directly paying people to vote the way you wanted them to?

No, although they should all be publicly ridiculed by the free press. The media was intended to be the great equalizer.

Would you see anything wrong with companies and individuals, without subterfuge, paying politicians to vote for policies that financially benefitted those corporations?

Once they are in office. What you need to remember is that capitalists are rarely fans of capitalism. Do you know what sort of policies corporations want? Ones that benefit them and help to maintain a monopoly. This is why heavily regulated, protectionist countries have so many governmentally maintained monopolist industries; many policies break-up competition and make it difficult for new firms to start up.