• StabbingSky@lemmy.zip
    2·
    13 days ago

    Actual lobbying is a good thing. It’s informing a politician about an issue you want addressed.

    During my wife’s masters degree she had to lobby to a state representative. The issue she was lobbying was not putting parents who were convicted of non-violent crimes in prison.

    Actual lobbying rarely happens, though.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      Well, kinda. Lobbying can be about simply informing a politician

      Who lobbies. Corporations, trade associations, labor unions, nonprofits, universities, cities and states, and foreign governments all lobby. Some hire outside lobbying firms (often staffed by former members of Congress, congressional aides, or agency officials); others employ their own in-house government affairs staff. Last year, external firms took in $2.76 billion versus $2.46 billion for in-house operations, the first time on record that firms accounted for the majority of federal lobbying spending.

      2.76 Billion.

      Other sites put lobbying over 5 billion in 2005

      There are only 13k registered lobbyists.

      It is not a “good thing” that billionaires and their corporations pay billions to influence law.

      • StabbingSky@lemmy.zip
        1·
        13 days ago

        That’s why I specified actual lobbying. Most of those companies are just covers for bribery.

        But lobbying and bribery aren’t inherently mutually inclusive.

    • heartSagan5@lemmy.zip
      3·
      13 days ago

      Lobbying should be done by citizens, lobbyists that bribe politicians should be laid off. The former is a citizen, the latter is their job which should be a no no.