While two states and several cities have cracked down on single-use plastic bags, the plastic industry has worked to keep more bans at bay. Despite spending only $320,000 on lobbying throughout the majority of 2019, the Plastics Industry Association has made sure that municipalities think twice before enacting plastic-thwarting policies.

Not a fan of those side-effect-filled medication advertisements? Too bad! They’re not going anywhere anytime soon. The United States, alongside New Zealand, is one of two countries where Direct-To-Consumer advertising is legal, a fact that likely has to do with the U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s massive lobby, which has spent $3.2 billion since 1998.

If you’ve ever wondered why restaurants cant simply pay their employees a living wage the answer behind our ongoing tipping culture is simple: Lobbyists. The National Restaurant Association — only the second-most controversial NRA — has done their best to keep-hard working staffers from being properly compensated. The NRA, according to the New York Times, “has spent decades fighting increases to the minimum wage at the federal and state levels, as well as the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers like waiters.”

Have you ever wondered why for a country so obsessed with babies we have such sparse parental leave options? Baby formula makers may be to blame. In order to pad formula sales, makers of baby formula, including Nestlé, have lobbied not only against protections against breastfeeding, but also but against maternity and paternity leave programs, per The Lancet. Why? Studies have shown that working parents breastfeed for less time than their stay-at-home counterparts.

We may live on a dying planet, but at least the executives for several major corporations are getting hefty bonuses and raises year after year. That’s the apparent philosophy of several gas and energy companies, including Chevron and Southern Company. While the former famously rallied against U.S. auto emission standards, the latter encouraged the continued usage of gas in several sectors, according to The Hill.

While several of us Americans may wish we had a single-payer health care system akin to those in the United Kingdom and Canada, lobbyists from the health insurance industry sure don’t. Back in 2019, lobbyists did their best to kill a proposed “Medicare For All” plan, arguing that politicians should work with the existing Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) and claiming that Americans preferred their employer-based insurance, the New York Times reported.

Wish you didn’t have to head to the airport every time you wanted to travel? Airlines may have something to do with your woes. In the early ‘90s, Southwest Airlines spoke out against a proposed high-speed rail project in Texas, issuing the following statement at the time: “Rail has a romantic appeal; but, this case cannot be decided on the basis of nostalgia, or even a desire to emulate the rail service of France and Germany. The American reality is that high-speed rail will be viable in Texas only by destroying the convenient and inexpensive transportation service the airlines now provide, and only by absorbing huge public subsidies.”

Did you spend all of Monday in a panic about your taxes? Blame Intuit, the maker of TurboTax and other tax preparation companies for your misery. While Denmark, Sweden and even the United Kingdom all have forms of return-free tax filing, companies have done their darnedest to keep the government from just telling us how much we owe them. Intuit and H&R Block spent a respective $2 million and $3 million on lobbying in 2016 alone, per NBC News.

In 2023, there were more than 630 mass shootings in the United States. But there’s one force more powerful than death when it comes regulating firearms — the NRA. According to OpenSecrets, the National Rifle Association spent upwards of $2.3 million dollars on lobbying in 2023 alone.

CropLife America, one of the pesticide industry’s most notable trade groups, has long done its best to keep companies that create pesticides able to thrive, encouraging lawmakers to relax rules on clean water, among others.

If your district looks strange, Gerrymandering — and its lobbyists — may be to blame. For instance, during New York’s 2011 redistricting process, several Congressional lawmakers tapped lobbyists to stand up for their respective parties, doing everything from questioning populations and scrapping with local residents, per a resource from Princeton University.