"How do you think the patent system ended up granting basically everything in the first place? Like with practically everything benefiting huge companies in the US, it's the result of intense corporate bri... lobbying."

Well, this is the effect of the democracy that you people have created and nurtured over the years. Why do you want to blame the companies that have stepped in to take advantage of the rules you have set forth? And yes, that includes giving them the power to affect the rules.

>Well, this is the effect of the democracy that you people have created and nurtured over the years. Why do you want to blame the companies that have stepped in to take advantage of the rules you have set forth?

I haven't nurtured this form of democracy at all (lobbying), I'm from Sweden, not the US. Nor do I believe that the actual voters have 'nurtured' this form of paid influence, if it were ever to be subject to a specific vote then I'm certain that the vast majority of american voters would be against this.

They have nurtured it if they did nothing to stop it. Either way, they set up their form of governance initially and then didn't bother to continuously monitor it and adjust accordingly.

They deserve everything that is happening to them precisely because of their in-action through their crappy voting. It may not be nice, but that's the reality of it. At this stage, only radical things will fix it.

"if it were ever to be subject to a specific vote then I'm certain that the vast majority of american voters would be against this."

Yes, there is the rub. They probably would vote that way, I agree with you. Except they can't. They're divided and powerless to demand any sort of referendum. Heck, one need only look at recent approval polls for congress/president/law to see that the majority are NOT happy. Yet, they plow on and do nothing except whine and vote.