After learning that Google had joined ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, I sent the following letter (paper) to Larry Page, CEO and a founder of Google. I forgot to include that Google got its start with a federal grant.
By the way, I think that paper letters have far more influence than petitions, online or otherwise. It's easy to add your name to a petition; it takes time and thought to write a letter.
I didn't take the time to fit into my letter a reminder that Google's start was made possible by a government grant. See the very interesting "On the Origins of Google".
Larry Page
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
Dear Mr. Page:
I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Google had joined ALEC, an organization that is opposed to much of what Google stands for:
From “Ten things we know to be true” on your company philosophy:
“You can make money without doing evil.”
ALEC is an anti-democratic organization if there was ever one.
Consider the words of Adam Smith:
"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [those who live by profit], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776
For more tidbits from Adam Smith, see “The Invisible Adam Smith” at http://magree.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-invisible-adam-smith.html
I wonder if I want to keep using Google products. But maybe I should use Google products to fight whatever “evil” Google may do.
