[smokinn]

There's no way everyday people can compete with corporations anymore.

There are approximately 244,673,000 adults aged 18+ in the US: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html 318,857,056 * (1 - 0.233% of Persons under 18 years, percent, 2013) ~= 244,563,362

And according to https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/ , to match the $3.24 Billion spent on lobbying in 2014 you'd have to get absolutely everyone in the US 18 or over to give you 13$ and a quarter just to match what corporations are spending.

It's not the least bit realistic, and if the pre-2008 growth rate in lobbying spend picks up again it'll just get more and more out of control.

What's really necessary to get this absolutely incredible amount of money out of politics. The two presidential candidates shouldn't have to spend over 30 billion dollars on an election. The amount of money in politics right now is just insane.

[icanhackit]

to match the $3.24 Billion spent on lobbying in 2014

Who says every dollar needs to be matched? If a corporation lobbies for rubber subsidies, no one will give a shit. If a corporation lobbies to make it a criminal offence to mention their brand online without a license, that crosses into free speech which might be worth a dollar or twenty to those who find that kind of thing important.

It's not the least bit realistic

You don't necessarily need to spend more than the corporations, you just need to make it lucrative to stand up for the good guy. If you can have $1m to be evil or $900k to be good, the $100k lost is more than made up for by the advocacy of those you served. It's free advertising.

[click170]

Yes but how do you do that when the supreme court has ruled that money equals free speech?

There's lots of people who can see that money in politics is the problem. How do we solve it though?

Wait for a supreme court judge to die and hope their replacement aligns with our views on this topic?

Petition the whitehouse?

Fund a kickstarter campaign to get our own people lobbying for this?

[walterbell]

Fund alternative media whose cost structure is much lower than TV networks, e.g. this TISA explainer video on banking, public services regulation and corporations, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wwkikCpQ6pk . The Young Turks is the top online news show on YouTube, I wish they had episode transcripts. There is a related PAC to reverse Citizens United, http://www.wolf-pac.com

[michaelbuddy]

TYT isn't really news in that they require the news to function. They comment on the other news gathering interests. So they can't really standalone.

[stephengillie]

Let's just bite the bullet and start an anti-lobbying lobby. Fund candidates that support transparency and anti-lobbying legislation.

[Alupis]

> Fund candidates that support transparency and anti-lobbying legislation.

That would of funded the current President as well... that is, until he was elected President.

[vinceguidry]

> There's no way everyday people can compete with corporations anymore.

Really? It's like you've never heard of a PAC before.

[Alupis]

PAC's and Super PAC's are often heavily funded by corporations.

And regular PAC's really cannot compete with the unlimited funding a Super PAC can levy (PAC's have strict limits on contributions to parties and candidates; $5,000 per candidate, $15,000 per party per year).