Lobbying is corruption

Have you ever tried to explain lobbying to a European? 你曾经尝试向欧洲人解释什么是游说吗？

Neither have I. But George Hotz just did the opposite: he explained it to everyone who is not American. Read it. It is short, funny, and devastating. 我也没有。但乔治·霍茨（George Hotz）刚刚做了相反的事：他向所有非美国人解释了这一点。去读读看吧。它简短、有趣且具有毁灭性。

His version goes like this. Corporations and rich people give money to politicians. Not directly, of course: to their campaigns. The politicians then listen to the people who paid them, and pass the laws those people want. It is not a bribe, because a bribe would be illegal. It is a “Super PAC”. And if a politician was really helpful, he can leave politics and get a comfortable consulting job with the very people who lobbied him. 他的版本是这样的：企业和富人给政客钱。当然不是直接给，而是给他们的竞选活动。政客们随后听从那些付钱给他们的人，并制定这些人想要的法律。这不算贿赂，因为贿赂是违法的。这叫“超级政治行动委员会”（Super PAC）。如果一位政客表现得非常“乐于助人”，他可以在卸任后，从那些曾经游说他的人那里获得一份舒适的咨询工作。

He ends with the sentence every European hears: You just don’t get it cause you aren’t American, lobbying is definitely not bribery. 他以每个欧洲人都听过的那句话作为结尾：你只是因为不是美国人所以不懂，游说绝对不是贿赂。

He is right, except for one detail: as a European, I understand the concept, but I do not use the word “lobbying” to describe it. I use another word: corruption. 他是对的，除了一个细节：作为欧洲人，我理解这个概念，但我不用“游说”这个词来描述它。我用另一个词：腐败。

I opened the Wikipedia page, and the first paragraph made me smile. Corruption is defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, and it explicitly includes bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, and fraud, “as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying”. 我打开了维基百科页面，第一段让我会心一笑。腐败被定义为滥用受托权力以谋取私利，它明确包括贿赂、权钱交易、贪污和欺诈，“以及在许多国家合法的行为，例如游说”。

That is the trick, written in a neutral encyclopedia voice: the practice is the same, only its legality changes. The page even has a section called “legal corruption”, where power is abused within the confines of the law, precisely because those with power can write the laws that protect them. Depressing. 这就是诀窍，用中立的百科全书口吻写道：行为本身是一样的，只是合法性变了。该页面甚至有一个名为“合法腐败”的部分，即在法律范围内滥用权力，恰恰是因为那些掌权者可以制定保护他们自己的法律。令人沮丧。

So we don’t really disagree George, we just name the same animal differently. It seems the trend in the US is to rebrand absolutely everything, including “corruption”. 所以乔治，我们并没有真正的分歧，我们只是对同一种东西有不同的称呼。看来美国的趋势是给所有事物重新贴标签，包括“腐败”。

So, in conclusion and as a European, I understand that lobbying is corruption. The main difference is that lobbying comes from a guy in a nicer suit, with a lawyer supervising. Simple, basique. 总之，作为一名欧洲人，我明白游说就是腐败。主要的区别在于，游说来自一个穿着更体面西装、有律师监督的人。简单，基础。