Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Toalterthetermsof anagreementor anagreedtarget, or therulesof anegotiationwhile it isongoing, especially in anunfairway.This is a Government that meets its economic targets and does notmove the goalposts.We were given a moving date, and an exchange date, but the buyers keptmoving the goalpostsand giving us a later date.[1958,Telephone Engineer and Management, volume62, Wheaton, Ill.:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publications,→OCLC, page64:The tempo at which events are moving, the technological changes and the new developments being encountered on all sides sometimes gives the impression that the objectives orgoal posts are constantly being moved.]1977,The Ladies’ Home Journal, volume94, Los Angeles, Calif.: Family Media, inc.,→ISSN,→OCLC, page62, column 3:The conflict between being a lady and having a career was crystallized when I was in high school. It seemed as if my mother keptmoving the goalpostsaround.1992, W[illiam]C[lement]McGrew, “What Chimpanzees Are, Are Not, and Might Be”, inChimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, published1996,→ISBN,page217:The common thread to these four problems is the question of wha can reasonably be inferred about the covert processes, as opposed to the overt acts, of other organisms if we and they cannot communicate directly through verbal disclosure.[…]No one baulks at applying the same standards of inference to other cultures of our species, but it is still easy tomove the goalpostswhen another species is involved[…].2003January 14,Peter G[osselin] Fitzgerald, “Statement of Hon. Peter G. Fitzgerald, U.S. Senator from Illinois”, inCompetition in the Telecommunications Industry: Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,United States Senate, One Hundred Eighth Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.: Printed for use of theCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation;U.S. Government Printing Office, published2006,→ISBN,page85:Sooner or later we have to have rules, and we have to know that they are not going to change, for people to have business plans developed and so that they can go out and raise capital and stick with their business model. But if there is this constant uncertainty that when the Commission changes, or when they have another rule tha they are going tomove the goal postsagain, nobody is going to want to have anything to do with this field.2010, Mike Bradwell,The Reluctant Escapologist: Adventures in Alternative Theatre, London:Nick Hern Books,→ISBN, page249:He had to put down a deposit of sixty grand to secure the theatre and just as he was about to sign the cheque, American Equitymoved the goalpostsyet again.2015,Aaron Edlin, Joseph Farrell, “Freedom to Trade and the Competitive Process”, in Roger D. Blair, D. Daniel Sokol, editors,The Oxford Handbook of International Antitrust Economics, volume 1, Oxford:Oxford University Press,→ISBN, section 13.5 (Bundling and Loyalty Pricing),pages305–306:When a practice harmfullymoves the goalposts, but does not violate freedom to trade, the ban on "unfair methods of competition" in Section 5 of theFTC Actmight be a better fit than the ban on restraints of trade in theSherman Act.
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