Is predominantly Catholic, Portuguese-speaking Brazil, in the western hemisphere, not western now
How to end govt corruption?
- Thread starter Narz
- Start date
raystuttgart
Civ4Col Modder
Agreed, it was badly formulated.
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
Corruption is a form of abuse of power. As much as governments are pretty obvious centers of power, liable to drift towards excess of power and corruption, that doesn't mean that any other powerful entity would be, by nature, any less corrupt. As such, the whole divide between a "virtuous private sector" and a "vicious public sector" seems off the point to me, the question is rather about how much a person or an entity can reach such a position of excess of power. As I read it once: "In China, government controls big business whereas in the US, big business controls the government". No matter the political system, there are necessarily forces of power at play. Very certainly China is a lot more corrupted than the US, but that doesn't mean the US (or any other country) is exempt of any corruption.
Now okay, we can assume that a strong rule of law is the only efficient answer to corruption, but then why does the West allow tax havens, which are basically rule of law way outs, to exist? Tax havens are massive money laundering machines, yet most of them, at least historically, are British crown dependencies, why does Westminster allow that? Why does the EU allow Luxembourg to be a tax haven? Why does the US federal government allow Delaware to be a tax haven as well? Why do we allow bitcoins when we know that they are massively used for money laundering? Generally the given answer is that if we wouldn't do it, the money would go elsewhere, in Dubai or whatever. That's about the same as saying that we should allow cocaine production in the US to prevent it from being produced in Colombia.
My feeling is that corruption is, despite all good intents, a very efficient lever of power that very few are really ready to renounce to entirely. Yet it goes with very dramatic consequences. See for instance how the German industry made itself dependent on Russian gas, and the consequences it has over the whole of Europe nowadays.
Now okay, we can assume that a strong rule of law is the only efficient answer to corruption, but then why does the West allow tax havens, which are basically rule of law way outs, to exist? Tax havens are massive money laundering machines, yet most of them, at least historically, are British crown dependencies, why does Westminster allow that? Why does the EU allow Luxembourg to be a tax haven? Why does the US federal government allow Delaware to be a tax haven as well? Why do we allow bitcoins when we know that they are massively used for money laundering? Generally the given answer is that if we wouldn't do it, the money would go elsewhere, in Dubai or whatever. That's about the same as saying that we should allow cocaine production in the US to prevent it from being produced in Colombia.
My feeling is that corruption is, despite all good intents, a very efficient lever of power that very few are really ready to renounce to entirely. Yet it goes with very dramatic consequences. See for instance how the German industry made itself dependent on Russian gas, and the consequences it has over the whole of Europe nowadays.
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