Lobbies Represent People Too

Yglesias explains why inefficiencies are hard to fix:

When liberals see legislators—especially legislators they often have reason to like—taking this sort of indefensible position, they tend to immediately reach for the “corrupted by corporate cash” explanation of what’s going on. But I think that’s wrong. When you have a substantial inefficiency, you also have a whole bunch of people whose jobs depend on that inefficiency. That’s why it’s hard to treat coal the way we should and that’s why it’s hard to treat Sallie Mae the way we should. It’s also an important reason why “Medicare for All” isn’t really the political no-brainer that people sometimes claim it is—insurance companies employ tons of people, the vast majority of whom are not cackling and evil executives.