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Comment by sriramk | Hacker News Reader

People change jobs all the time. The folks in government commissions are probably from that industry and when they do want to change jobs, will probably find work in that industry. It is a bit unfair to cast aspersions on people. It is also interesting that to stop this would require something akin to a non-compete policy which is typically frowned upon in HN :)

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Yeah, it's wrong to cast aspersions on people who go to work for the government and act as extended arms of the industry and corporations they just left. Like the many Goldman Sachs people on the committee that authorized a trillion dollar bailout for companies that primarily included Goldman Sachs. Or the Monsanto guys who ran the FDA and other government agencies and made sure chemicals like rBGH, aspartame and others (from the DDT/agent orange corporation) were given a green light. There's nothing going on there at all! Why golly, it's just government in action! And the guys from Raytheon and GE certainly have no vested interest in agitating national fears and military spending at all.

That's the problem with big government... it size as a consumer builds in a need for companies to schmooze with and influence the government. The US government EVERY DAY than ExxonMobil makes in a year.

That doesn't excuse crony capitalism or outright corruption. But it does help to know where it comes from.

It's a shame that people have voted this comment down because they don't agree with it. That's not how voting is supposed to work.

You make a good point: why would anyone knowledgable about the communications industry EVER take a job on the FCC if they knew it would bar them from working in the private sector in the future? We don't pay FCC commissioners nearly enough to make that work.

Isn't it obvious we should pay them enough so they can live without taking bribes?

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