One of the things media outlets are never allowed to thoroughly investigate is the widespread bribing of public officials. A few months ago, there was a brief flurry of outrage when it was discovered that Chirac, the former President of France, had squirreled away forty million dollars in one Japanese bank. The clear implication was that he’d deposited far more money in other accounts, lucrative payments for his ten year term of office. The “investigation” stopped almost immediately thereafter.
When we look at the relationship between campaign contributions and benefits to contributors, it becomes apparent that .5% of the expected gain is all that’s necessary to pay, usually in “campaign contributions” to obtain the passage of favorable legislation.
All governments are susceptible to this sort of corruption. Elected officials almost always retire from public office with millions of dollars that appear, as if by magic, in their various accounts. It is a rare official that can withstand the temptation.
But, this is why we have Democracy. Catholic Fundamentalism has, as a political tenet, that God, The Loving Programmer, allowed democracies to exist simply to allow more people to be tested by temptation. Every elected official, from the school board member who uses his position to get a job for some ne’er do well relative to a President or Vice-President who uses his office to fund a vast “foundation” has been tested, and failed.
When a country was ruled by a King, only the ruler and his immediate entourage were in a position to take bribes. “It’s not fair!”, said those who were not in a position to profit from the process. So, we now have huge governments, endless staffs, and lots of elected officials, all of whom are forgetting that laughing all the way to the bank is followed by a far longer time of never laughing, again.
