The European Parliament is considering revoking lobbying access for every interest group tied to Amazon in a major escalation of fight over warehouse working conditions.
https://www.politico.eu/article/parliament-weighs-larger-lobbying-ban-for-amazon/Open linkView original on lemmy.world514
Comments22
Why not ban lobbying completely?
Lobbying is literally a form of petitioning.
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
but it seems that this method of communication completely drowned out by moneyed interests
And if you kill it, money still finds its way somehow but the others don't. The problem is money.
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.
Paid corporate lobbying should end.
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?
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
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.
I concede this is complicated, but i think we can all agree that paid lobbying groups are a cancer on society.
Yeah agreed. I just don’t see how you exclude them without unintended consequences.
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.
You can still consult with various interest groups without allowing actually lobbying, but I get what you mean.
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.
revoke lobbying access
Me, as an American: ...I can haz? Plez?
Sorry, Amazon has billions more free speech tickets than you do
DO IT, Come on already!
Yes yes yes yes yes please
But don't just do it for Amazon, do it for all parties.
Hi, im Beff Jesoz and I have a company called Nozama and I'll give you 10 billion dollars to stop this.
Beef Jeezos?! Omg, he real!
Notice that they're still committed to allowing the kind of bribing called "lobbying", just not that specific example of it..
This is called cosmetic "Principles", see?
establishment NEVER guts its own corruption..
Never.
_ /\ _