Empires (Like the U.S.) Fall When Corruption Becomes Rampant

George Washington's picture




 

Widespread corruption destroys empires.

By way of example, corruption was one of the main causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire:

The Praetorian Guard—the emperor’s personal bodyguards—assassinated and installed new sovereigns at will, and once even auctioned the spot off to the highest bidder [and see this]. The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.

The Ottoman Empire started its decline when the sale of offices, bribery and corruption became widespreadIndeed:

Most historians point to "degenerate Sultans, incompetent Grand Viziers, debilitated and ill-equipped armies, corrupt officials, avaricious speculators, grasping enemies, and treacherous friends.

The Yuan Empire (led by the Mongols) also collapsed due to corruption:

The decline of the [the Yuan empire] was a result of a number of factors, these being incompetent and rivaling leaders, corruption, revolts, decadence, factional struggles, assassinations, external attacks, and disease.

Moreover:

Toward the end, corruption and the persecution became so severe that Muslim generals joined Han Chinese in rebelling against the Mongols.

Former history professor at the University of Alabama Larry Clayton notes:

The [Roman] republic evolved into an empire and the empire grew corrupt from its own tremendous power. There arose, like mushrooms after a long rain, self-indulgent vices driven by pride and power. An oft quoted observation noted:

 

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” wrote the English essayist and historian Lord Acton in 1887.

 

Long after the Roman Empire disappeared, other empires, notably the ones of France, England, and Spain began with the conquest and settlement of the New World. By the end of the nineteenth century, European nations had created economic, military and commercial empires across much of the globe.

 

Watching the rise and fall of empires is like watching a predictable ballet or opera, or even a Hollywood movie, all with distinct beginnings, middles, and ends, marked by triumph after triumph, crisis after crisis, and then the resolution of it all at the end. The curtain drops. The lights come on. The European empires lasted until the Second World War, and then crashed.

 

***

 

We come full circle to our question, “why do empires fall?” An empire falls when it becomes so self-important that it loses touch with the values that produced it. They begin to think they are destiny of the world.

 

There is a glowing sense of power that is irresistible, and those who get to the controls lose touch with the ancient virtues that gave their people their value and worth.

Indeed, an ancient Chinese principle holds that empires collapse when:

Corruption becomes rampant in the imperial court, and the empire begins to enter decline and instability.

(Indeed, Bastiat showed that corruption at the top leads to lawlessness among the people.)

As we've exhaustively documented, corruption is rampant in the the U.S. today.

In addition, widespread corruption leads to runaway inequality. Specifically, one of the biggest causes of runaway inequality is that the big banks are manipulating every market, and committing massive crimes.  Fraud disproportionately benefits the big banks, makes boom-bust cycles more severe, and otherwise harms the economy … all of which increase inequality and warp the market. These actions artificially redistribute wealth from honest, hard-working people to a handful of crooks.  And corrupt government officials have aided and abetted this.

Runaway inequality - in turn - leads to the fall of empires ... through unrest or revolution.

Indeed, inequality was .   In fact, inequality in America today is twice as bad as in ancient Rome , worse than it was in in Tsarist Russia, Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many banana republics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slaves in 1774 colonial America.

Institutional corruption is also leading to a lack of trust ... which is collapsing the economy.

Indeed, the U.S.A. is following the pattern of ALL past empires as they declined:

  • They financialize their economy ... going from manufacturing to speculation
  • They incur very high levels of debt
  • They overreach in costly military adventures
  • They become arrogant and lazy
  • They collapse soon after their peak

No wonder the American Empire is starting to collapse ...

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Fri, 01/08/2016 - 16:25 | 7018850 besnook
besnook's picture

i empathize with you. i am lucky enough to be able to head to the woods for 3 months out of the year. everything makes sense there and is real, no optimism but no cynicism, no hope but no fear, just life, live then die. predation in nature is a beautiful enactment of life just as birth is.

man on the other is one big clusterfuck of an animal, the dumbest species on earth. exercising predation of the other men for the sake of predation as an uncontrollable reflex hardwired into our dna. it might be somewhat understandable if the predation was for food, shelter or in defense but it is for pieces of paper for the sake of having the most pieces of paper. just totally stupid. it is almost as if nature gave man a self destruct gene to save the rest of the environment from us.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:57 | 7017469 HenryHall
HenryHall's picture

You might want to leave the British out of it.

As corrupt as their empire was (and it was), it was less and less corrupt towards the end.

That is why they basically were able to walk away from their colonies rather than be forcibly ejected. Except Suez of course.

Dutch, French, German, Italian, Ottoman empires all fit though.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:21 | 7017586 besnook
besnook's picture

the brits end was interesting in that they knew at the end of ww1 that the empire was in danger of unraveling because of the debt of the nation and the increasing restlessness of the colony natives. ww2 was in large part the last ditch effort to save the empire. the war pounded them(and the rest of europe) with reality. to propagandize their obvious demise at that point would have been foolish and they willingly accepted the end of empire(under the crush of food and energy rationing post war. funny how starving ends the bs). they were able to quietly dismantle their empire because they "won" ww2. in most cases the framework of the existing .gov simply transferred to the locals who were already in charge locally, economically and/or politically. there was no way britain could defend their colonies from local dissent after the war. funny how that stiff upper lip returned to the character of the brits under extreme economic adversity. the assholes began to return in the 60s and since thatcher it has become a bankers' paradise and now they are into pedophilia.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 10:50 | 7021575 HenryHall
HenryHall's picture

Let's hope the American people learn the lessons of history and have the good sense to walk away from their empire too. USA has all the resources it needs to be self-sufficient. And let the rest of the world solve it's own problems.

Best hope may be for Trump to be banned from Germany and Britain and then elected US president.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:56 | 7018656 thesonandheir
thesonandheir's picture

The British Empire is still alive and well dear friend, it is just hibernating until such a time as we can regain our colonies in the New World once the US rips itself apart under financial and social stress. Can't wait to see the Queen having a nice cup of tea on her White House lawn.

 

That is why you guys run around with guns, you are still shit scared of us centuries later!

 

Toodlepip my continental chums, see you soon.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 16:26 | 7018859 besnook
besnook's picture

rule brittania, brittania rule the bath tub.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 16:13 | 7018768 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Theson - You Brits already had that in 2013 with a ton of Brits on TV. Thats about as far as it goes lol.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:43 | 7017385 Grandad Grumps
Grandad Grumps's picture

Rend unto Satan what is Satan's.

However, your mind and heart and soul are not Satan's. Only you can surrender them to him... and he will try to deceive you into doing so... and entrap you with earthly trifles, fear and ego.

Take heart. There is always a way back.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:41 | 7017381 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

A single trader in a global economy has nobody to trade with. The US may operate and control this single entity through the dollar but it is still a single trader. One path left devour yourself although you will devour any other you need to try and keep it going as long as you can. Rome did not collapse in a day it took centuries of decline to eventually bow out and the same with all others and will be the same with this one.

I like the neat trick of Keynes in this process and a forced expansion you can radically shorten the process of decline to decades not centuries if those most able can grab a far bigger share of the expansion each time. So you got to love where the central banks directly prop up those more important ensuring they get the bigger share.

2008 - 1 decade later, not even that and we are back to square one because of where the expansion of QE went. Well if we did it again the systen of 1% elites owning 99% will be 1% of elites owning 99.5% a five year span.

THE COLLAPSE OF RETURN FOR EVERY CENTRAL BANKER ACTION THEN where next time you do an expansion you might want to figure 1% elities owning 89% might give you 15-20 years. They will try it again and where the revolution comes in and all for it myself is that period of time must be > lifetime of a person and a decade does not fucking cut it.

YOU MAY OWN ALOT CENTRAL BANKER BUT TO OWN EVERYTHING LEAVES A NO TRADE = ECONOMY.

 

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:30 | 7018534 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

GreatUncle - Yep. The rate of business nowadays is in short decades. You pointed out the real empire with Central Banking. It is going to die a painful death and take 1/3 of us with it. The king is dead, long live the king.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:45 | 7017704 seek
seek's picture

While mostly true, we saw the Soviet empire collapse iin 7 or 2 years, depending on how you define the start.

The usual "slowly, then all at once" timing applied. It's not inconceivable that the US will go the same way, with 2008 marking the start of the slow phase. We could be seeing the start of phase two right now with a new recessionary collapse and a 2-3 year unravelling.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:39 | 7019421 August
August's picture

An analogy I like (perhaps read here at ZH):

The US Imperium is like a spectacular cloud formation which towers into the skies but, however impressive it may appear, with changes of wind, temperature or humidity, it will all dissolve. 

Quickly, slowly, or in a massive storm - we'll just have to wait a while to see.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 11:19 | 7021690 SixIsNinE
SixIsNinE's picture

  - speaking of spectacular cloud formations, check this one in Geneva Switzerland @ the CERN location :

http://www.sott.net/article/309977-Inter-dimensional-portal-caught-on-fi...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:31 | 7017321 BigStupid
BigStupid's picture

Corruption is not a cause of the collapse any more than a rancid smell is the cause of rotten meat.

Over-extension (logistics), obtuse administration (decision making without accountability), ineffective bureaucracy (bureaucracy for the sake of maintaining the bureaucracy) and runaway wealth extraction (hoarding/removal of productive assets from society at large) are more accurately the causes of the collapse - Corruption is just a natural symptom of the decay.

If you find yourself in a position where you become aware of impending doom you grab what you can while you can - this is simple human nature. To blame a collapse on one of the above alone is foolish, it takes a systemic failure of a society to collapse. They key pillars (FIRE, MIC) of our world can no longer take the full force of propping up our society; rather than going quietly into that good night, they're going to rip us apart as they come tumbling down.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:34 | 7018556 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

BigStupid - Yes its a suicide pact. Just posted similar about a high death toll. Every empire does this. Capture the world (Central Banking in this case) then commits mass genocide (suicide in the end). Then we all get to clean it up. Lovely, isnt it? We cant evolve past 3d for my taste. This plane sucks and so does the script.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:31 | 7017301 Jstanley011
Jstanley011's picture

I'd question your premise, that America is an empire.

If America is an empire, who's the emperor? Notwithstanding the rampant speculation among the tinfoil brigade, Obongo and his sychophants are out on their butts come January 20, 2017 come what may. Some emperor.

If America is an empire, why didn't we annex Iraq as an imperial province and hand its oilfields to the highest bidders from among American oil companies? That's what the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate or any historic empire you care to name would have done. But we didn't.

So how, exactly, is America an empire?

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 05:35 | 7020949 Global Observer
Global Observer's picture

If America is an empire, why didn't we annex Iraq as an imperial province and hand its oilfields to the highest bidders from among American oil companies? That's what the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate or any historic empire you care to name would have done. But we didn't.

In those days they didn't have fiat currencies, so they had to either loot wealth and carry it away or keep it under their control. These days it is much easier. The first act of the occupational government was to change the currency in which Iraq traded from the Euro back to the US$, which means every drop of Iraqi oil exported, regardless of who owned the oil fields, was available only in the US$. Since the US had been running a trade deficit since before the invasion and continued to after the invasion and till date and paying for its imports in US$, all the Iraqi oil exported since the currency conversion was effectively looted by the US.

I know it is not simple like what the Romans did, but not too complex for someone with a bit of knowledge and a functioning brain to figure out. The US, since its inception, had been a nation of bandits.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 01:04 | 7020689 KashNCarry
KashNCarry's picture

Got a bunch of down votes huh? It doesn't hurt to ask for proof after all. I'd suggest you might start reading:

John Perkins 'Confessions of An Economic Hit Man.'

Next you might consider reading Sheldon S. Wolin 'Democracy Inc., Managed Democracy and The Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.' 

And you might round out your reading with Michael Hudson 'Killing The Host, How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy The Global Economy.'

For extra credit check out Gore Vidal 'Imperial America, Reflections on the United States Of Amnesia'

followed by Vidal's 'Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace, How We Got To Be So Hated.'

Lastly there's always Charles H. Ferguson 'Predator Nation, Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, And The Hijacking of America.'

Enjoy!

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 14:18 | 7018112 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Empires exist by exerting control, both political and financial on the conquered. Where the empire's influences are weakest, it will also demand garrisons for its soldiers as well as loyalty from the local armies.

Everywhere the Empire of Chaos has touched with war, puppet governments have been installed to pay tributes in the form of using the reserve currency and central banking: A way to convert a nation's natural resources into debts to the banksters, to profit the multinational industries that supply the "imperial province" and take anything of value.

America has left garrisons which now number in the hundreds (The last time I looked it up, it was 1000+ American military bases around the globe outside the continental USA, but apparently it's 700+. The Pentagon was once asked for a definitive answer to how many there are, but nobody apparently knows). As the province matures, its armies are often used as "Coalition forces" to invade new countries to expand the empire. This describes what is happening today and what has occurred throughout my lifetime.

As for Obongo, I reckon the real power of empire is in the permanent government and the shadow oligarchs living in symbiosis through think tanks, lobbys and intelligence agencies, not some figurehead who is replaced every few years.

See what's happening right under your nose?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:02 | 7017158 silverer
silverer's picture

Tent city, USA.  Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.  Or maybe it will be your neighborhood.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:26 | 7017291 upWising
upWising's picture

Here....take a 1:30 fly over Eureka, California....

http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2016/jan/4/your-first-2016-palco-marsh-flyov...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:55 | 7017117 lordbyroniv
lordbyroniv's picture

LIES

It all comes down to lies.

Fuck America.

I now realize I was a 'mark' soon as I popped out of my mothers vagina.

 

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:21 | 7017262 sapioplex
sapioplex's picture

Agreed.  Can anyone point out a form of corruption that does not depend on a lie (deceit?)  I don't believe it is possible, but I would appreciate it if anyone can propose a scenario where this is wrong.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:35 | 7019409 Rhal
Rhal's picture

Payday loans. 

Hm... there is deceit by omission in the upbringing of PDL users who spend ahead of earnings I suppose, but that goes to monotary ignorance.  

But your point still stands, we are being robbed by phycos who lie and cheat to get ahead while leaving us to work off the debt.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:54 | 7017108 Rastadamus
Rastadamus's picture

Go ahead make my day: Blame Obama.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 14:20 | 7018147 tenpanhandle
tenpanhandle's picture

Glad to oblige...Obama is a tool and tools get the job done. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:40 | 7017008 xavi1951
xavi1951's picture

Anyone seen my Hellfire Missle?  My tracking number isn't working.....

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:29 | 7016924 InnVestuhrr
InnVestuhrr's picture

"Empires (Like the U.S.) Fall When Corruption Becomes Rampant"

More fantasy self-delusion and propaganda - regimes end/fall ONLY by force. If you are not willing to march as a widespread armed uprising into armed revolt, risking your lives, then you must just grin and endure the boot heel on your neck. You can continue with this mutual verbal masturbation, but it has no effect on corrupt oppressive regimes.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 16:26 | 7022887 Wow72
Wow72's picture

Human Nature and Ego's wreck the party always

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:39 | 7016998 unplugged
unplugged's picture

did you not see:  "...through unrest or revolution"

?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:16 | 7016849 Fred123
Fred123's picture

Yeah George, we get it, ok?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:37 | 7016600 Chuckster
Chuckster's picture

Corruption was rampant in this country since 1776 but in the last 20 years it has went over the top.  1776 = freedom?  No....the wealthy wanted to play their own financial game.  They whipped the people into a rage telling them they should have freedom which sent king George on his way.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 08:10 | 7016186 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

"The [Roman] republic evolved into an empire and the empire grew corrupt from its own tremendous power"

a common misconception

first, the Republic was already an Empire before it evolved into what is called by historians the Principate, and later the Dominate

second, corruption in the Republic, the Principate and the Dominate was endemic but had it's ups and downs

hey, the whole thing clocked a frigging millennium, the same way as the second instancees of it, both the HRE and the Byzantine Empire clocked a frigging millennium each

you can't encapsulate what went well and what went wrong in a few shallow sentences. sorry, it's more complex then that

Empires, then and now, are based on alliances. that's cooperation and often even friendships, as in the Roman concept of Amicitia. Something the British Imperialists knew, but the British historians often forgot

see Imperial Federation

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:43 | 7018594 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Ghordius - Interesting comment. Isnt it strange Rome and the USA both tilted East? The morphing is what interests me. I am glad you stil come here and postx you have half a brain. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:45 | 7016645 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Correct. However, this time around we have almost 8 BILLION people caught up in this global shit-show. The only reason why people like you have time for such mental masterbation is because of the excess calories and excess production of others. Exponential equations and moral hazard are indeed a real motherfucker, so while I do expect the "collapse" of the average quality of life to be slow at first, I expect that it will accelerate much faster than it did back then.

How many were slaves during that period...?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:20 | 7017579 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Video illustrating laws of physics

manifesting in a simple collapse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcGM6maGGk

Exploding iceberg in Antarctica!

Of course, the globalized systems of electronic monkey money frauds, backed by the threat of force from apes with atomic bombs (which the Anglo-American (Zionist) Empire was the center of), has become trillions of times worse than anything that ever existed before in human history! Although those systems of electronic frauds backed by atomic bombs have become too hyper-complicated for any human beings to fully comprehend or control anymore, the over-simplification is COLLAPSING GRADUALLY, THEN RAPIDLY.

What drives the collapse of an empire is the same as what originally enabled it to be made, namely the ability to back up lies with violence, which contained the seeds of its own destruction, due to that never being able to stop its lies from still being false. As generation after generation passes, we increasingly get the situation that all sociopolitical institutions are dominated by the best available PROFESSIONAL HYPOCRITES.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity. - Andre Gide  The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. - Leonardo da Vinci  Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. - Demosthenes
Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:48 | 7018618 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Radical - Like your deep thinking but agree with George Washington thatthe concepts which create success for a time are abandoned. Liberty and justice are concepts. While Rome and America practiced them, they thrived. Without that they die. And as Ghordius stated it is not an all or nothing proposition. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:34 | 7016589 WOWurstupid
WOWurstupid's picture

Forty percent of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves. We are an oligarchy not an empire. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 17:12 | 7019113 stock market loser
stock market loser's picture

In America it's 90% slaves. Much worse here. 

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 02:31 | 7020818 PT
PT's picture

The idea came from an old business magazine article that stated that when a man goes from rags to riches and hands his empire over to the kids, two thirds of the time the kids blow the family fortune and 99% of the time, if the kids don't blow it then the grand kids do:

I "blame"* rich people for allowing poverty to be so bad.  If people could happily survive on the minimum wage then rich people would happily let their loser kids embrace minimum wage jobs and a menial existence.  They would happily hand over the family fortune to people who worked hard and would give that fortune the respect it deserves.

But the rich parents are scared of their loser kids being poor, or are simply pissed-off by the idea that daddy's hard work might be all for nought in a few years time, so they use their influence to put their loser kids where they clearly do not wish to be and do not belong, the kids resort to corruption because it is easier and they don't want to give up the good life, and before you know it, a generation or two later and the top of the country is bathing in corruption.  If only the loser rich kids (and parents) didn't fear poverty, then they could happily hand over the reins to the competent.

Consider this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114694/
(Tommy Boy)

I hated it.  I don't recommend anyone watch it (or at least don't pay to watch it, but then I s'pose you gotta watch it to know what I'm talking about).  I couldn't understand why Hollywood would make such a story.
America, the land where anyone can succeed through hard work, makes a story about an idiot who inherits his wealth because he was born into it and the hard-working go-getter would have been pushed back in the gutter if he had not managed to, shall we say in business-school-speak, "build a relationship" with the idiot.

But then I figured that maybe the story was closer to the truth.  Perhaps it was a message to the go-getters who think they can get rich with a little hard work and all by themselves - you need to attach yourself to a rich idiot or you're going nowhere.

Obviously there is a tremendous amount of wiggle-room in my "theory".  Plenty of rich people out there understand the importance of handing over the right mind-set to the kids, and on the opposite side, plenty of poor people handing over destructive mindsets to their own kids ( and plenty of poor kids learn their way out of poverty due to the "unintended lessons" from their parents). 

Just another small part of a bigger picture.

* You can blame poor people for being poor but they are poor because they have no power to be rich, even if it is just a mental deficiency they have.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:52 | 7016693 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

well, the Roman Populus was a broad oligarchy, too, until it was forced to give the vote and half of the magistrate's seats to the Plebs because of a strike

and it maintained some parts of the character of an oligarcy, but later more based on finances then blood

problem is, if the international relations of a polity require a certain amount of skills, knowledge and capability to travel and meet foreigners and strike deals with them, there is always an "upper class" that can do that and one that can't

someone has to meet the owner of the oil you want to import, or stay home and tell the people that gas will be more costly, at the pump

again: the way a polity is structured is one thing. the exercise of empire, the "forging of broad alliances" a different one

a slave is owned. a serf is bound. either to a place or through contracts

in some cases, through culture, for example the "everybody ought to have a home" that might imply a "everybody ought to have a mortgage", particularly if the quality of your sexual life depends on "making the Joneses green with envy" or at least "keeping up with the Joneses"

a marriage is a (usually voluntary) contract, too, that binds you. a job, the same. in both cases, it's a question of quality of bonds

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:50 | 7018631 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Great stuff Ghordius, thanks for simplifying.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 08:59 | 7016410 Element
Element's picture

Thank you.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 07:56 | 7016140 Element
Element's picture

oh ... the morning GW schtick as arrived ... my ... Pprrruuuressssccshuasss!!!

Luckily george is not a fish, as he'd have to go out and eat another fish for breakfast, then spend all day cogitating dissonantly about that and the problem of eating dinner, and the inevitable self-loathing and nausea to follow. A stone fish sounds about right, some sort of toxic bottom feeder.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:52 | 7018638 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Element - You just went full retard. 

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 02:19 | 7020796 Element
Element's picture

You're talking about full retard level in a place like zh? Look around, full retard is what this place does the most, matriculation for retards.  :D  Georges is an adept mate, I only aspire to being able to mimic being that fully-retarded. He's a natural!  :D 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 05:08 | 7015900 modest_proposal
modest_proposal's picture

Although the thesis is sound overall, I take exception to many of your 'exhaustivly documented' instances of corruption. At a 'retail' level, the US is squeeky clean. You can't bribe a cop or a meter maid. You can't pay off the IRS agent to overlook your tax evasion. You don't get held up for a bribe by the customs official. Heck, the offices and positions that are used as 'spoils' are carefully controlled by law and labelled 'political appointees' - explicitly identiftying the people in government with a specific partisan agenda. The people of the US have _no idea_ what actual retail corruption looks like, and should stop whining about bureucrats screwing up or implementing bad policies they're tasked with.

The US is, on the other hand, rife with institutional and systemic corruption. Lobbying and campaign finance are explicit vehicles for legalized bribery and influence peddling. Legalized insider trading in the halls of Congress (they continue to fail to self-regulate) makes millionaires of new legislators - as a backdoor quid pro quo. The Federal Reserve is a creature of, by, and for the TBTF banks - and is independent until the very moment it reaches out and wags Treasury.

But let me emphasize - there is a huge difference between retail corruption and institutional corruption. We got the one, but not the other.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 19:07 | 7023461 blindman
blindman's picture

here an example of the "other" which we also got.
https://news.vice.com/article/a-juror-in-the-making-a-murderer-case-beli...

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!