It isn't really - a lobbyist is just exercising the free speech available to all individuals - they just happen to be doing it on behalf of a group of individuals.
I'm purposefully ignoring the whole "corporations are people" aspect because that's a different discussion. But, what you seem to be arguing is that I cannot gather with my neighbors, select a person from the group, and send them to DC to talk to our Congressperson about whatever topic interests us. Instead, we all have to go individually?
Edit - I actually do find the current lobbying situation to be problematic, but it mostly relates to campaign donations. It's not as simple as lobbying (by itself) is bad.
This is comparing a gun to a nuke. Yes, you could kill just as many people with a gun, but the nuke is hyper efficient at the job. They're not the same.
Lobbyists may be akin to a policy nuke. They have an arsenal of tools from influence, to money, to unethical and sometimes illegal behavior. Their positions have become so effective that it drowns out most others.
edit: Another way to think about it is that Lobbyists have changed, i think, from the voice of a group of people to a voice instead of a group of people. Leaving many people voiceless in the face of insane capital and influence.
I'm not convinced this is true. If a lobbyist is not speaking on behalf of people, who are they speaking for? After all, corporations are just legal entities composed of people - with stockholders/owners, a BoD, employees, and customers.
The simple act of Joe Lobbyist meeting Congresswoman Schmidt for a coffee and chat about some topic isn't a problem. The problem is that with that cup of coffee comes an implied donation on behalf of the people Joe represents. The problem is campaign finance, not talking to our representatives.
Organizing millions of poor people to financially compete with lobbyist funds seems a losing battle.
In the UK unions run an entire political party and manage to have a lot of influence including often forming governments. It's not a losing battle.
Ordinary people are free to combine their voice via unions or their own lobbyists.
Communicating with your representatives is protected speech. The problem is campaign finance.
Employees are a cost center. The idea is to get as much as possible for as low a cost as possible. That's business and why employees can only win if they band together because they'd like to get as much as possible for as little work as possible. Those are diametrically opposed interests. You can change that equation a lot if the employees are the owners.
Like I said (in the edit), the problem is campaign financing, not lobbying. The two are related in the US, but we can probably fix financing without impeding free speech.
And lobbyists are free to far, far, far out-contribute your block, rendering it effectively powerless.
Why do you seem okay with that?
Right... but only one side of that operation is the problem!
It's like saying 'a glass of milk + cyanide capsule = death' and blaming the glass of milk!
Lobbying is a neccesary and healthy part of a functioning democracy. Do you want decisions about you and your life taken with no input from you apart from voting once every few years?
The lobbyist, who used to be that senator's chief of staff definitely does......
hence the amount of wealth that politicians, their family which usually means children, gain while they are in office is phenomenal and can lead to positions at state and city levels. the real one percent are these upper end politicians and bureaucrats who just operate with near impunity because its basically impossible to follow all the trails or because much of it has been made legal; usually by making laws that say one thing and do another.
As an example why can't I who don't live in your state go to your representative and get him to act in my best interests? Why would it be wrong for your representative to act in my interest instead of yours?
If the government wanted to put a back door in encryption, who is it that tells them why that’s a bad idea? Quite often, lobbyists (in this case on Behalf of companies whose security would be compromised). Industries organize lobbyists to advocate for themselves because politicians can’t possibly understand all the ramifications of the laws they pass.
There are definitely issues with organized lobbying but the alternatives are lacking.
The US is currently permissive. Legalized corruption.
Oh, that's easy. Lobbying is legal, bribery isn't.