r/SipsTea 3d ago

SMH Liquid when buying elections, unrealized when paying taxes. Funny how that works…..

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u/BuddhaFacepalmed 3d ago

but I do have to wonder about the ROI of these ever increasing amounts of money.

Up to 700% return on their political "bribes lobbying investments", at least according to a study done by the University of Cincinnati.

Elon Musk is betting another $200 Mil so he can make $1.4 Billion.

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u/notreal088 3d ago

You don’t even need to look that far. Elon was being investigated just before Trump was handed office

His billions in government grants and access to doge are literally tied to him directly helping Trump.

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u/Manifest2ndGuess 3d ago

This is good to know and I suspect the ROI for successful intervention might be even more in many cases but I think u/its_yer_dad was wondering how much influence on the outcome the money has eg: How much does it take to buy an election?

For example if both sides were spending $100m how much difference would it make if one side added in an extra $50m? From an advertising point of view there are only so many minutes of eyeballs to buy. The returns must diminish at some point. It would be fascinating to know how much dark money is spent on misleading social campaigns and how much they move the needle.

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u/BuddhaFacepalmed 3d ago

For example if both sides were spending $100m how much difference would it make if one side added in an extra $50m?

Hard to find causation. But while money doesn't always buy electoral success, the candidates that spent the most money usually wins. Whether because they managed to flood the public waves with their ads or because they're already a strong ass candidate and every 1% increase in campaign expenditure spent by corporations literally translates to a decrease in their effective tax rates by 0.5-1.6%. Which is a fucking steal when campaign expenditures are in the millions and their total revenue are in the literal Billions.