To expand on my comment to poemless: business interest groups are like the old pre-universal-suffrage voting system in various countries, when people's vote was weighted on the basis of their wealth.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

You seem to be assuming some prinicple based on your own local experiences.  Here in America, unions have a ton of money, and I can assure you, not all gotten the honest way.  Heads of unions and CEOs are cut from the same cloth here.  And how much power do the unions have?  Well, there's a debate in Congress about bailing out the auto industry, which has repeatedly effed up, with our tax dollars.  Who is for it?  Dems.  Who does labor give money to?  Dems.  

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.