<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>williamcotton</author><text>If the cup is half empty it&amp;#x27;s called bribing. Otherwise it&amp;#x27;s called lobbying.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know anything about the CFTC in particular but I&amp;#x27;m familiar with the general idea of lobbying and the role it plays in a representative government.&lt;p&gt;Elected officials have to interface with basically every industry in the country. How is any specific representative in a legislature going to have the knowledge required to vote on a banking act? Or a bill pertaining to power plants? Or cryptocurrencies?&lt;p&gt;Does it make sense to allow representatives from various industries access to members of the legislative branches of government? How else could Cynthia Lummis or Kirsten Gillibrand make an informed decision when writing federal laws related to cryptocurrencies? Should there be federal laws related to cryptocurrencies? Should legislatures have a government regulatory agency that enforces federal laws? Who is going to write those laws? Should there be a federal agency like the SEC, but specifically for cryptocurrency? Is that the CFTC? Who should make up the CFTC? Who should make up the SEC? Are the people who are qualified to work for industry more or less qualified to work in the agency that regulates the industry? Who is best qualified to lobby for the industry? For the people who work for the regulatory agencies or lobby for industry, are they owners or laborers in the regulated industry? What if everyone at least wrote their name down on a big public list and said who they worked for and published when they met and who from which government position they met with?&lt;p&gt;Are there easy answers to these questions? How the hell has any of this ever worked?</text><parent_chain><item><author>flanked-evergl</author><text>Before or after they were bribing politicians for favourable regulation for FTX at the detriment of their competitors who were not fraudulent?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;prospect.org&amp;#x2F;power&amp;#x2F;sam-bankman-frieds-multimillion-dollar-game&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;prospect.org&amp;#x2F;power&amp;#x2F;sam-bankman-frieds-multimillion-d...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Crypto’s supporters in Congress are determined to ignore the massive gap in capacity between the two agencies; in fact, they likely understand that its incapacity is part of its appeal to FTX. A bill proposed by Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) seeks to grant the CFTC “exclusive jurisdiction over any agreement, contract, or transaction involving a contract of sale of a digital asset that is offered, solicited, traded, executed, or otherwise dealt in interstate commerce, including market activities relating to ancillary assets.” Perhaps in anticipation of such a move, FTX has stocked up its ranks with former CFTC officials. Former CFTC commissioner and acting chair Mark Wetjen is FTX’s head of policy and regulatory strategy. Ryne Miller, who was legal counsel to Gensler when he led the CFTC, is FTX’s general counsel. The Tech Transparency Project has also identified 14 other cases of CFTC alumni revolving into the crypto industry.&lt;p&gt;Vote these people out.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>What Happened at Alameda Research</title><url>https://milkyeggs.com/?p=175</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>howmayiannoyyou</author><text>Nobody will be voted out. You cannot get elected without cash, but if you do then you can&amp;#x27;t remain in office without it. You also won&amp;#x27;t influence legislation without money in your campaign or PAC wallets.&lt;p&gt;If HN users want to impact policy and legislation, its not happening without donating a lot of money (or to a limited extent time) en masse to lobbyists and institutes that believe in whatever it is you believe in.&lt;p&gt;Better to be slapped with the truth, than kissed with a lie, and having worked in politics, this is the truth.</text><parent_chain><item><author>flanked-evergl</author><text>Before or after they were bribing politicians for favourable regulation for FTX at the detriment of their competitors who were not fraudulent?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;prospect.org&amp;#x2F;power&amp;#x2F;sam-bankman-frieds-multimillion-dollar-game&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;prospect.org&amp;#x2F;power&amp;#x2F;sam-bankman-frieds-multimillion-d...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Crypto’s supporters in Congress are determined to ignore the massive gap in capacity between the two agencies; in fact, they likely understand that its incapacity is part of its appeal to FTX. A bill proposed by Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) seeks to grant the CFTC “exclusive jurisdiction over any agreement, contract, or transaction involving a contract of sale of a digital asset that is offered, solicited, traded, executed, or otherwise dealt in interstate commerce, including market activities relating to ancillary assets.” Perhaps in anticipation of such a move, FTX has stocked up its ranks with former CFTC officials. Former CFTC commissioner and acting chair Mark Wetjen is FTX’s head of policy and regulatory strategy. Ryne Miller, who was legal counsel to Gensler when he led the CFTC, is FTX’s general counsel. The Tech Transparency Project has also identified 14 other cases of CFTC alumni revolving into the crypto industry.&lt;p&gt;Vote these people out.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>What Happened at Alameda Research</title><url>https://milkyeggs.com/?p=175</url></story>