this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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[–] boovard@lemmy.world 94 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Why not ban lobbying completely?

[–] monogram 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This! only allow petitions as the method to steer law.

Power to the people needs money to be insignificant for the process of law

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Lobbying is literally a form of petitioning.

[–] monogram 11 points 1 week ago

Except, instead of using democratic methods you use Money 💰

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because lobbying is also done be environmental groups, neighborhood groups, consumer activists, ... Ban lobbying would deprive a large set of the population of their voice

[–] traceur201@piefed.social 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

but it seems that this method of communication completely drowned out by moneyed interests

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 15 points 1 week ago

And if you kill it, money still finds its way somehow but the others don't. The problem is money.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That would outlaw scientists lobbying the government to stop things like global warming and pollution. It would stop mom and pop shops from lobbying against things that are good for massive corps but bad for them.

[–] alexc@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Paid corporate lobbying should end.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So what defines corporate? What defines paid? You’re excluding mom and pop shops and even medium sized businesses from your definition. How are lawmakers supposed to know if their law is gonna harm specific industries if businesses can’t tell them?

[–] alexc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Paid is by definition anyone paid to do the lobbying. Corporate is definitely harder to define, but let’s say you’re only allowed to lobby on behalf of your own organization (or self)

And, better yet, let’s make every single lobbying effort public - Times, dates, people involved, and the subject raised (but perhaps not the outcome). Good legislation should happen in the open

[–] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So paid would include the owners (if it’s an llc or similar), it would include anyone sent by the owners even if it’s not their job title, etc.

I’m pretty sure you can request all that information as well, with a FOIA request.

[–] alexc@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I concede this is complicated, but i think we can all agree that paid lobbying groups are a cancer on society.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah agreed. I just don’t see how you exclude them without unintended consequences.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And when the EU writes a regulation like mandating USB-C chargers, they'll make sure the companies making phones are on board and get to have realistic timelines to implement these things. If you're going to regulate an industry you kind of need their expertise, unfortunately.

[–] kungen@feddit.nu 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can still consult with various interest groups without allowing actually lobbying, but I get what you mean.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah, ideally it should be government going to industry bodies, unions, etc if they need to know more about the topic they're trying to regulate instead of the current system where industry groups are basically writing laws.