I need a concise list of special interest groups that influence government for their own benefit at our expense. I'd like to include examples in a variety of categories, some that spend a relatively large amount, some that are recognizable and a few statist billionaires.
Here's my list so far. Most of which came from OpenSecrets.org.
Are there any important examples that I'm missing? Perhaps in other categories (agriculture, religious, etc.)?
AAJ (American Association for Justice)
AARP
ActBlue
AFLAC
AFL-CIO
AFSCME
AIG
American Bankers Assn
American Federation of Teachers
American Hospital Association
American Medical Association
American Postal Workers Union
AT&T
Bank of America
Bear Stearns
Chevron
Citigroup
Exxon Mobile
Fannie Mae
Foreign Government Lobbies
Freddie Mac
GE
General Motors
George Soros
GlaxoSmithKline
Goldman Sachs
IBEW
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Laborers Union
Lockheed Martin
Microsoft
Military–industrial complex
Morgan Stanley
National Association of Realtors
National Auto Dealers Association
NEA
Pfizer Inc
SEIU
Teamsters Union
The Federal Reserve
Time Warner
Trial Lawyers
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
UFCW
United Auto Workers
UPS
Verizon Communications
Walt Disney Co
American Federation of Teachers... they do some horrible things... it is basically a whole bunch of teachers that are pissed off because they think they are underpaid...
My Blog: http://www.anarchico.net/
Production is 'anarchistic' - Ludwig von Mises
But remember how do we tell the difference between public and private. In the uk all the government departments and organisations are actually registered corporations. You can find them in companies house database. So that does not neccessarily make an organisations public or private. What about the percentage of revenues that is government related. Say 100% of the revenue of a registered corporation is government related. Would they be considered to be public? There is this list of government departments with high governmetn related revenue.
So if your revenue is 100% government related then you will have an interest in manipulating the government to your benefit. This can give the organisations a competivive advantage in the market. This is one of the major arguments for an anarchist society, the organisations exploit the trust that the government has with the population and we end up with a quasi-fascist dictatorship by utilsing a mediaocracy.