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Harmful to a few internet companies, but beneficial to other US companies. The leaks have identified that the NSA conducts industrial espionage to the benefit o

by zipdog 13y ago

Harmful to a few internet companies, but beneficial to other US companies. The leaks have identified that the NSA conducts industrial espionage to the benefit of US companies. That said, I disagree with the grandparent's point that Corporation literally are the government. Instead, the need for large media budgets for re-election campaigns drives the political process, which makes corporations and politicians cosy.

alexeisadeski3 13y ago
What are these "other, larger US companies"? Apple and Google are two of the largest US companies by market cap.
- zipdog 13y ago
  Good point. I was thinking in terms of workforce, influence and global reach, but Goog and Apple have that too. (Made edit to original)
  - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
    Evidently, IBM has the second largest workforce amongst US corps.
  - declan 13y ago
    Not in terms of workforce. Google has 47K employees: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile A large percentage of those are overseas, and the remainder are concentrated in Mountain View (yes, I'm aware of satellite offices in SF, NYC, Boston, etc.) Call it 15K HQ employees, which should be enough to make an impact. Right? Except that their own senator, California's Dianne Feinstein, remains arguably the most vocal NSA surveillance enthusiast on Capitol Hill. She'll get reelected with or without the help of those 15K voters -- in a state with a population of 40 million. (In reality the number is even lower because not all employees are U.S. citizens eligible to vote.) And those 15K concentrated employees are negligible compared to companies like AT&T, which has 243,000 employees which tend to be inside the U.S. and spread more evenly through congressional districts: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=T+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=T+Profile Of course AT&T has long had a cozy relationship with the NSA very different from left coast companies: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589012-38/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589012-38/ BTW, compare to WalMart's 2.2 million employees: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WMT+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WMT+Profile

by zipdog 13y ago

alexeisadeski3 13y ago

What are these "other, larger US companies"? Apple and Google are two of the largest US companies by market cap.

zipdog 13y ago
Good point. I was thinking in terms of workforce, influence and global reach, but Goog and Apple have that too. (Made edit to original)
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago
  Evidently, IBM has the second largest workforce amongst US corps.
- declan 13y ago
  Not in terms of workforce. Google has 47K employees: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile A large percentage of those are overseas, and the remainder are concentrated in Mountain View (yes, I'm aware of satellite offices in SF, NYC, Boston, etc.) Call it 15K HQ employees, which should be enough to make an impact. Right? Except that their own senator, California's Dianne Feinstein, remains arguably the most vocal NSA surveillance enthusiast on Capitol Hill. She'll get reelected with or without the help of those 15K voters -- in a state with a population of 40 million. (In reality the number is even lower because not all employees are U.S. citizens eligible to vote.) And those 15K concentrated employees are negligible compared to companies like AT&T, which has 243,000 employees which tend to be inside the U.S. and spread more evenly through congressional districts: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=T+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=T+Profile Of course AT&T has long had a cozy relationship with the NSA very different from left coast companies: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589012-38/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589012-38/ BTW, compare to WalMart's 2.2 million employees: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WMT+Profile http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WMT+Profile