Dear Friends,
It seems to me, government corruption has two facets, one is the corrupt politician who benefits from the corruption and the second is the corrupt businessman who funds the corruption. Both parties get benefits while the nation as a whole pays a heavy price in reduced wages, lower economic output, crushing of innovation, high unemployment, less small businesses and a government that sinks into despotism. Since both the corrupt politician and the corrupt businessman are willing for the nation and all the other people in it to pay such a heavy price, for their narrow self interest, it stands to reason neither of them care much for the well being of the nation. To expect someone who has participated in the system as a corrupt businessman to stop the system which he has made so much money in, is like expecting a fish to stop breathing water and start breathing air, in short, it is absurd.
The price society pays for corruption is very high indeed. Loss of economic flexibility leads to many other economic woes. As the power of government is used to protect the businesses of corrupt businessmen, it must necessarily stifle small businesses and therefore, innovation. Innovation being the wellspring of the boom phase of the economic cycle. Since halting the catalyst of the boom phase of the economic cycle puts an economy into semi permanent recession, depression as it is called, is dangerous to the political elite, so they have come up with a way to have it both ways. They destroy the economic cycle then boost it with economic crack by printing money and giving it to their patrons. This rewards the corruption of the businessmen and the political criminals while creating a false sense of economic expansion in the people.
The political cost is even greater than the economic cost. Corruption has a way of growing. It feeds off the egoistic self interest of those who participate by transferring wealth from the people to the elite. Government power must become ever more intrusive and pernicious to protect the ill gotten gains of the corrupt politician and the corrupt businessman. Moreover, increasing government power both in scope and force, encourages the scheme to go on. Eventually the power of government grows to the point that government becomes autocratic. Liberty is lost and tyranny is born. The people become slaves to arbitrary laws, crony capitalists and government intrusion.
Those who participate in the system of corruption have vested interests in keeping the gravy train running. A great evil is seldom done immediately, a great evil is always preceded by small evils piled upon one another, until a great evil is a small step. Once a person is consistently doing great evils, like abusing the law and regulation for personal gain, it becomes very difficult to stop and go back to virtue. It has happened and those examples are renowned due to their rarity. Saint Augustine was just such a case. The fact Augustine is a saint is testament to how rare an event turning from corruption to virtue is. Those who have made great wealth by visiting great evils on mankind, are not likely to change without divine intervention, as in the case of Saint Augustine.
So, when someone stands before me claiming they were engaged in crony capitalism, but now are looking to put an end to it, I know I am being lied to. To do that, the corrupt businessman turned politician, would have to do violence against his own self interest. It is not normal for anyone to violence against their self interest, and that holds true especially for egoists, who have done great evils for great wealth. To claim that they are not “in the pocket” of whatever faction you care to name, is absurd, they are the one who owns the pocket! Of course, it is a simple thing to steam roll over the laws, our Constitution and mores, but it is much easier if the people can be tricked into voting for the corruption. There is a saying, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time…” Sadly, a crony capitalist or socialist can fool enough people, for enough of the time, to get elected to office… and the game goes on.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
