I would assume there are a variety of reasons why organizations pay speaking fees, some pay large sums to speakers to build their own profile or for publicity. Just having the impression of access to the elite can be a marketing tool for some membership based organizations for example.

I think it was Mark Cuban who said people fall over themselves to hear successful people like Hillary or himself speak. They are willing to pay hundreds of thousands in the hope that some of it will help them learn something.

I think it is rather telling that people like all the wall st banks who paid to hear Hillary speak are not paying to hear Trump speak. Which one is really the more successful business person? Which one is black balled from wall st? Which one will be taken seriously when banking regulations are proposed?

Come on, we all know why they are paying....

Probably the Wall Street crowd already knows Trump's approach and have more personal access to him if they wish, than to Hilary Clinton; second that understanding Clinton's approach is relevant to their business; third yes trying to improve access to express their views another reason for having Clinton speak.

I wasn't aware Clinton had business experience.

I had a staffer to a US Senator tell me he thought it was good politicians could get speaking fees after leaving office, his position was that if politician knew he could make good money after leaving office, it reduced chances of corruption for personal enrichment.

Interesting article on ballot initiatives and their effect on the presidential election (turnout). Legalizing Pot (encouraging liberals to vote) and background checks for gun purchases (encouraging republicans to vote).


Ballot initiatives could tip the balance in swing states - POLITICO


Nevada sounds interesting.

There is more to the business world than selling cheap Chinese suits.

Funny but the prior post implied Clinton had some business experience, I was just curious asking what that experience might be.

As an aside, if Trump's "brand" is quality, why would he import cheap Chinese suits instead of French or Italian suits ?

I rest my case.

Really? A quick search of this thread tells me that, according to you, if I vote for Hillary I'm either dead or stupidly gullible.

Can you give one example of something that was gained by the people that paid for one of her speeches? Just one.

I certainly agree that this thread needs intelligent right-wing arguments. But let's be realistic here, when we've had the likes of themadpooper and a guy who seems to think pictorial memes pass for cogent argument, the problem isn't that such posters have been scared away but that they never arrived.

It sounds like you've never had the pleasure of attending conferences. I've attended my fair share, and I can tell you the organizers go all out for 'signature speakers' to bring in attendees. It doesn't matter what their 'specialty' is, relative to the conference subject; they just have to be a celebrity or 'big name'. They get paid thousands to give an opening or closing speech, and as a direct consequence (they hope), large numbers of people sign up for the conference who would otherwise stay home. It has nothing to do with the organizers expecting direct payback from the speech giver.

Given their income, they wouldn't even have got a tax deduction for their charitable contributions. Hence their high effective tax rate.

I went to a conference in May that had a hired "speaker" .... he's the same one that, a couple of years ago, did the keynote for a competitor who has a completely different corporate structure and vision. I wonder which one of us he really loved?

At one point in this very thread, I was trying to have a congenial and engaging debate with Flavius Aetius. That was until I discovered him in the Canada forum trash-mouthing me in a thread. A thread that, by the way, was started by another guy that insulted me in this very thread, and then did a flounce when I stood up for myself. The thread in the Canadian forum also hosted some lovely people, whom I had never met before, having a laugh at my expense and calling me a bitch and a dragon.

So, it's not all one sided.