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Google Employees Enjoyed "Revolving Door" to White House Appointed Positions

posted by n1 on Thursday August 11 2016, @08:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the welcome-to-the-club dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius writes:

Resistance, as they say, is futile. According to the Google Transparency Project, and reported by watchdog.org "More than 250 people have moved from Google and related firms to the federal government or vice versa since President Barack Obama took office."

22 former White House officials went to work for Google and 31 executives from Google and related firms went to work at the White House or were appointed to federal advisory boards by Obama. Those boards include the President's Council on Science and Technology and the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Of additional interest, besides revolving doors between Google and the FCC, 25 officials in national security, intelligence or the Department of Defense joined Google, and three Google executives went to work for the DOD.

I think ordinary discussion of market forces, laissez-faire and the role of Government is irrelevant in regards to a system in which this is normal and institutionalized practice.

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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday August 12 2016, @08:46AM

    by TheRaven (270) on Friday August 12 2016, @08:46AM (#386940) Journal
    There are several issues. The first is that former Googlers likely have share options and so anything that benefits Google remains in their financial interest. The second is that 'revolving door' usually implies movement in both directions. The Goldman Sachs model is to send people off to government positions and then, if they act to the benefit of Goldman, hire them back again a few years later at a much higher salary. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there's the issue that you're hiring people who have a particular view of the industry: do you think that people recruited from Google are more or less likely to be advocates of individual privacy than the general population, for example?
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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 12 2016, @09:42AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 12 2016, @09:42AM (#386948) Journal

    The first is that former Googlers likely have share options and so anything that benefits Google remains in their financial interest.

    So, to you, it's more likely that is revolving door than just professional changing jobs.
    You may be right, WTH do I know about US politics. If it is so, then US is doomed - if good professionals to work for govt are corrupt and others can't be found, no wonder the governance is chaotic.

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