WTF Do Think Tanks Actually Do?

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#business #finance #career

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Think tanks are legitimately some of the most powerful organizations you have never heard of. They play a key role in influencing local, state, national and even global policy by hiring the smartest people in the world and paying them huge salaries to argue their point of view into the ears of people with power. Some of the biggest think tanks in America have more influence over legislation than our elected officials and have become so integrated into the political process that Washington would grind to a halt without them. It’s easy to see why people believe that think tanks are shadowy organizations pulling the strings of power, while insiders claim that they are just a cog in the machine keeping democracy intact…

But what the do these organizations actually do?

Politicians create laws in so many diverse fields that it’s literally impossible for them to actually understand most of it. If you woke up one day and found yourself elected to federal congress then you are going to need to review bills that get introduced so you can make an informed vote to pass or block it. But when the men and women who decide how the country is being run rely on unelected experts getting huge salaries from… somewhere?… you already know that there are going to be bad outcomes, but I am here to tell you that… it’s even worse than you think…

So it’s time to learn How Money Works to find out what think tanks actually do

[doujinflip]

Think tanks are like corporate consultants: they may have started out as an independent insight, but have since gotten coopted into inventing justifications for their sponsor’s predetermined decisions and act as a hired scapegoat if those decisions don’t pan out.

[johnl.]

Think Tanks don’t really educate politicians but rather help them sell whatever it is they want. Today it seems most politicians decision is not made by themselves but rather other interest groups or politicians above them.

[dane]

i misread the title as "WTF Do *You* Think Tanks Actually Do?" and i was like "well they're used as line breakers, like shock troops or heavy cavalry in ancient/medieval times, right?"

[EverettBurger]

The documentary "Why We Fight" talks about Think Tanks well.

They are also a great way to move foreign money into US politics

[ScrumpyWingnuts]

Best way to sum up think tanks is that they are the inverse of university studies: They have a solution already, and come up with studies and research that can justify that said solution.

[djpuplex]

Figure out how to spend other people's money.

[behemoththekitty]

This is my favorite video of yours so far.

As someone who used to work in big consulting l know for a fact that consultants fall for think tank data a lot .
And sometimes the recipient of that flawed consultation  is a company that donates money to.those same think tanks to generate intellectual sounding propaganda. Big business have been such prolific propagandists for so long that they can't escape falling for the very lies they helped spread.

[Declan_Mc]

As a political science student, What they do is don’t come up with new ideas but rather output data collections, policy ideas, and rhetorical devices/arguments that fit a certain point of view. A think tank bankrolled by a neoliberal will cherrypick only data which backs up their arguments for low tax low regulation, generate policy ideas which are congruent with neoliberal ethical and fiscal/monetary arguments, and provide tag-lines/arguments which can be used to rally the public towards a neoliberal issue position

[sirrjean]

I respect the fact that you (monitarily) optemized the format of your video's to keep engagement all the way through and immediately reccomend another video with a slightly related topic so that people keep watching. Very smart and very effective

[monsieurboks]

I know a guy who founded a think tank just to get into business school, and his local MP unironically quoted the drivel he put out as if it were legitimate 😂

[rne]

So basically a "Think Tank" used to be used like a search engine, but became the policy maker.

[HowMoneyWorks]

Has YouTube messed up the watch page layout for anybody else or just me?

[IndustrialBonecraft]

"Think tanks will work hard to make sure a member of their staff is there to put across the view of their employers."
They just won't tell you who their employers are, or where the money they're offering you is coming from.

[someasiandude]

Democracy? You mean competitive lobbying?

[-bit-potato]

All I know from Control The Narrative is that it can't go tits up.

[SOAP-jfue]

End story: those in power are idiots. Those who are not idiots are corrupt.

[psikeyhackr]

They do not point out that accounting/finance should have been mandatory in high schools for girls and boys since Sputnik.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations has been free on the internet since 2001. He used the word 'education' Eighty Times. You can find multiple instances of "read, write and account" not arithmetic.

But Milton Friedman slapped us around with the "Invisible Hand" that Smith only used once.

[philippefutureboy]

Basically Think Tanks are like AI, they can produce reports, but you don’t actually know the accuracy or legitimacy of the information provided so you have to fact check the output if you have a modicum of intellectual honesty 🤷‍♂️

[JH-jicj]

9:00 "because it will affect their (ahem*cough) biggest customers"

I see what you did there

[dre_withwithout]

Short answer: They are people with $ that tells your elected officials what to do.

Long answer: They are people with $ that tells your elected officials what to do.