[ajross]

Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the [...] right of the people [...] to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Yes, we're talking about a UK law, but the principle remains valid. "Lobbying" is just the advocacy for the government to do something. Most of the time it's a good thing, because governments on their own tend not to have many good ideas. Making that illegal in general is (quite literally) isomorphic to living in a totalitarian regime.

I suspect what you really mean is that lobbying by "bad people" should be illegal. Well... good luck defining that in statute. You say banana and I say banana.

Let's say you have a horse-and-buggy paratransit company (call it "Unter" for short) that you think is a great idea. But it turns out that existing cities have dumb, ancient laws that disallow horse-drawn carriages. But your users love your service and everyone agrees that it's a great idea. So you call up a legislator to pitch them on the idea of updating the law.

...and end up in jail, because you're a "corporation"?

[jxjdjr]

I think what he means is money should not buy you the ear of government. Using it for this purpose should be illegal, otherwise you no longer have a system where one vote buys you one unit of power, you instead have a system where one unit of wealth buys you one unit of power. Which in some people's opinion, is fascism.

[ajross]

Buying the ear of government with money already is a crime, though. "Lobbying" is regulated already, and certainly does not involve bribery. The problem is far deeper and more complicated than that.

You aren't going to drive much social justice if you paint your enemies as cartoon characters.