The paragraph below really shows it, too. The premise is that money spent lobbying the government is an 'investment' that returns social services--but it ignore

The paragraph below really shows it, too. The premise is that money spent lobbying the government is an 'investment' that returns social services--but it ignores that the government first has to tax consumers to buy those social services in the first place, and the undesired effects of e.g. minimum wage laws. "A coming study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which advocates giving that aids the poor, looked at 100 social welfare organizations in 13 states. The groups spent about $230 million on advocacy and organizing for minimum wage laws, expanding tax credits for the working poor, and other programs. Those efforts, the study found, produced more than $26 billion in direct and indirect benefits to individuals, a “return on investment” of about 115 to one."