$3.5 billion dollars

I know that a lot of money circulates through odd places in this country. But I never would have guessed that so much money is spent for people to talk (supposedly) to lawmakers to make certain laws. $3.5 billion was spent on lobbying efforts last year. That's a lot of money.



See? That went to $1 Trillion, but even then billion visual was pretty astounding. Now imagine 3.5 times that. It's a lot of money, and all spent just to talk. I don't even know what they would be doing with that money, unless they just have a lot of lobbyists who all make a lot of money. Maybe it's evidence of inefficiency in business and government.

Personally, I think it's a shame that so much money is spent by businesses to get laws passed in their behalf, but for almost all Americans, there is no way to do such a thing for our own interests. Even if I did have the money, I hope I wouldn't use it in such a selfish way. Instead of wasting money on selfish law slanting, I would donate it to public works projects that actually benefit the American public.

It's tough to know that we, the masses, have only our votes and voices to sway our government, while businesses spend billions of dollars to sway the people we elect.