posted by Spock
thats its only prupose
No, it's not. At smaller companies, it's almost all reactive to educate politicians on the impact of legislation, or opposing lawyer's and other entities trying to get a handout at their expense. Other times smaller companies will support an industry group that pools those collective resources to hire lobbyists to represent that industry. Lawyers are a huge part of it - they're always trying to force companies to track and disclose a bunch of stuff to make it easier for them to find lawsuits. If you ended lobbying, I actually worry how much worse govt would screw things up than they do now.
Again, IMO lobbying is made out to be much more of a boogeyman than it is. Let's say Google could actually buy a few hundred politicians at the state and federal level to get a special exemption not to pay taxes. That's how most people think it works. But in reality Apple, Microsoft and others are going to pay to oppose it, and so it's not even practical for Google to attempt it. I would guess most lobbying is actually centered around ensuring your company is not adversely harmed, or that your competitors don't get an unequal advantage.
Think about the Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank. Massive and complicated legislation that would be impossible to craft without industry input. If you don't think that's important, then go ahead and put an end to lobbying. Money wins elections, and for the most part politicians won't waste their time with someone that can't write them a check.