The world is extremely corrupt. Widespread corruption is yet another issue hanging over our civilization which we've never had to deal with before in our history.
People in the western world usually don't realize just how deep the rabbit holes go everywhere around the world and it's very sad.
I've lived in many countries and I speak 6 languages, including Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, which gives me access to local press in many parts of the world.
From Brazil to Turkey, to former Soviet Union to India to China to Latin America, to Africa and the Middle East - the press is teeming with corruption scandals and political unrest triggered by corruption everywhere.
All this fantastic economic growth that we've experienced in the last 20 years - all those titanic infrastructure projects, olympic stadiums, high speed trains, highways, new factories, gold mines, oil fields.... had the effect of producing a kleptocratic global "elite", which currently sits on piles of offshore bank accounts and "own" the power in most of the world, including military.
The western companies have gained a lot from this status quo, having shown positive growth year after year, much of it from expansion into foreign markets, which made investors and regulators happy, yet all that growth helped feed and grow the corruption monster to an incredible size.
Russia is so corrupt that people have stopped perceiving it as something wrong, rather they internalized it as something unavoidable and "part of the culture" - they've long lost hope of fixing it, given that the political elite owns the legal system, police, armed forces and any dissent or attempt of uncovering the scale of corruption, is quickly eliminated, as was the case of Boris Nemtsov last year.
In Moldova, corrupt politicians allowed a group of criminals to extract $1 billion or 1/8th of the country's GDP into offshore companies and that money was never recovered. It was both sad and comic to see the people on the streets shouting "we want our billion back". Yeah, right.
A former Romanian minister was sentenced to prison in the Microsoft licensing corruption scandal just two days ago. More than $50 million have been paid in bribes in that scandal. Note that we're talking about a small country and just one company.
Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, in fact most of the former USSR (except maybe the Baltic states) are corrupt beyond imagination.
People in Brazil are rioting on the streets right now because the current president gave immunity to the former president, accused of huge corruption and money laundering allegations.
Venezuela is currently a failed state mainly because of the corruption on all levels.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria are failed states with terminal corruption, which inevitably leads to war.
Africa .. I can just guess.
I don't know many details about Asia, but I wouldn't wonder if the picture is similar as in the rest of the 'developing' world.
Corruption is injust, it leads to cynisism and criminal political interest groups, it strengthens the criminal organizations and people loose hope. Eventually it reaches a boiling point, which results in rioting and war, the radical method of reshuffling the power structure.
Sorry for the long comment, but I feel like this issue is on par with climate change - and actually a cause of the latter, so there, I've said it.
> Widespread corruption is yet another issue hanging over our civilization which we've never had to deal with before in our history.
I do disagree with that. It may be true for somebody living at the US and a few more countries that used to be more honest, but in general, corruption was always about as widespread as it is now.
You are seeing a lot of it recently because it is getting uncovered. It is even hard to find a corruption scandal that is new (but I don't speech as many languages), and has not been going on since forever. And corruption getting uncovered is a good thing - it is how it ends.
I see points on both sides. Corruption has existed as long as lying - since forever.
But the scale of corruption is greater than ever before possible, as globalization allows moneyed, corrupt, and powerful players to pull up the ladder for entire countries. The Internet and modern transportation means you could move you in a day and your and entire stash in a moment - to whatever end of the earth you choose. It's a big planet. Not so easy for the fleeing nobles of the French Revolution.
And here in the States - and my home state of New York in particular - the line between corruption and expected business is very blurry. For example, lawmakers in Albany are allowed to make money on outside income, but what if that outside income relies on your legislation? Obviously that is corrupt (and has seen two prominent assemblymen convicted of felonies recently), but what if a lawmaker the next office over - a respected geologist - consults for fracking firms looking to drill in NY while working with other senators to get Governor Cuomo's fracking ban overturned? I'm sure many people would say yes, but what if instead that same lawmaker consulted environmental groups (for pay) about the risks and dangers of fracking while staunchly siding with Cuomo's moratorium? Is that also corrupt, even if we like that course of action more than the other?
Unfortunately, the more these things get brought to light, the more people call for transparency, and the powers that be work ever harder to obfuscate their actions. Even Barack Obama is guilty of this: he came into office promising the most transparent administration in US history, and has since set the record for classifications and federal charges under the Espionage Act (of 1917! As in, more than anyone else during the whole Cold War!).
Sorry to end on a bummer. I don't really know how to fix such a system from top to bottom.
Good point. Hard to imagine much corruption in a hunter-gatherer society. In fact, I think status in those societies was often gained by sharing (e.g. sharing the meat from a kill).
Yes, take a look at their politics. There's a reason they are that rich, and it is not because half a dozen people benefit from international corruption.
But if you know of an even better example, great, share it.
>Yes, take a look at their politics. There's a reason they are that rich, and it is not because half a dozen people benefit from international corruption.
Well duh, everyone knows that.
Switzerland is rich because a hell of a lot of people benefit from international corruption.
>But if you know of an even better example, great, share it.
The world is extremely corrupt. Widespread corruption is yet another issue hanging over our civilization which we've never had to deal with before in our history. People in the western world usually don't realize just how deep the rabbit holes go everywhere around the world and it's very sad.
This seems to be a rather whitewashed view of "our civilization". For instance, I'm sure you've heard of Stanford? Not the university, but the guy who founded it: Leland Stanford. The famous philanthropist with an exceptional business and political background:
Stanford’s business career rose in tandem with his political career. He participated in the founding of California’s Republican Party and was elected Governor in 1861. That same year, he became one of the four principal investors in the Central Pacific Railroad, which Congress authorized in 1862 to build the eastbound section of the first transcontinental railroad.
In 1885, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Political maneuvering made Stanford a very rich man. He participated in the worst practices of the Gilded Age: stock watering, kickbacks, rebates, bribes, collusion, monopoly. There is no acquitting Stanford on this front; his participation in such schemes is amply recorded in his letters. One historian of the transcontinental railroads argues that the principals of the era made clear their unsavory activities in correspondence in part “because the dimmer lights among them, such as Leland Stanford, had to have so much explained to them.”
Stanford is best remembered today, however, not for corruption but for a tribute to his only child.
Great write up, I never knew about the billion dollar robbery in Moldova and had to watch a video to understand how it was done https://youtu.be/KxsylnDO15w , seemed straight out of a mission impossible movie.
"Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria are failed states with terminal corruption, which inevitably leads to war."
I think you might have the cause/effect backwards. War is by far the mightiest and most profitable expression of corruption (My experience/knowledge is mostly limited to Afghanistan, but I have a feeling it applies equally to the other states as well).
It works both ways. The US has long officially recognized the geopolitical risks posed by corrupt governments because they tend to destabilize over the long term. The Arab Spring was sparked in Tunisia by a small business owner who lit himself on fire after corrupt officials harassed him and confiscated his wares.
The chaos caused by war also breeds corruption because when you're at war, acquisition, infrastructure, and other support are literally life and death. Since there's very little price elasticity and competition (you're at war so you usually try to buy from the most trusted sources which a huge barrier to entry), suppliers can jack up all the prices and not do the work since oversight in a warzone is much harder.
> Widespread corruption is yet another issue hanging over our civilization which we've never had to deal with before in our history.
Nope. For example the reason Catholic priests cant marry/have children is because the church felt this would stop priest filtering money from the church to their families.
Otherwise a great rant to read. I've very much with you in believing corruption is the cancer of society. And no country will excel while they allow it to to be a significant part of a nations economy.
> People in Brazil are rioting on the streets right now because the current president gave immunity to the former president, accused of huge corruption and money laundering allegations.
you don't have that right.
Current government was the first to allow the federal police to go after corrupt politicians, even the ones in office.
that triggered a chain reaction that scared a lot of people (since you pointed out, almost everyone in government is corrupt to some level). Those more corrupt powers (e.g. the candidate that lost to the current president was a drug trafficker) started a bogus impeachment protest that hardly represent what is on the streets. You have manifestations pro-impeachment with 500 people, and against impeachment with 20,000 people, then the press only report about the pro-impeachment one.
What is more interesting? all that seems to be funded by US money. And remember that former and current presidents where the first to forbid american companies to explore Oil in Brazil. It all comes full circle with the article subject.
> Current government was the first to allow the federal police to go after corrupt politicians, even the ones in office.
Even the dictatorship went after corrupt politicians, look at the story of Moises Lupion.
> the candidate that lost to the current president was a drug trafficker
That is a lie, part of the mudfight propaganda from last election.
> a bogus impeachment protest that hardly represent what is on the streets
The pro-impeachment protests are the biggest in Brazil's history, far greater than the pro-government protests. Check DataFolha numbers, the most respected Brazilian stats agency on these issues.
also not sure what you are comparing from that fellow on your first vague argument. He was a Governor of a lowly state. what's the comparison to president or the dictators?
but well, i think you at least gain some points for not being on the dictatorship-denial group like the other pro-impeachment people...
People in the western world usually don't realize just how deep the rabbit holes go everywhere around the world and it's very sad.
I've lived in many countries and I speak 6 languages, including Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, which gives me access to local press in many parts of the world.
From Brazil to Turkey, to former Soviet Union to India to China to Latin America, to Africa and the Middle East - the press is teeming with corruption scandals and political unrest triggered by corruption everywhere.
All this fantastic economic growth that we've experienced in the last 20 years - all those titanic infrastructure projects, olympic stadiums, high speed trains, highways, new factories, gold mines, oil fields.... had the effect of producing a kleptocratic global "elite", which currently sits on piles of offshore bank accounts and "own" the power in most of the world, including military.
The western companies have gained a lot from this status quo, having shown positive growth year after year, much of it from expansion into foreign markets, which made investors and regulators happy, yet all that growth helped feed and grow the corruption monster to an incredible size.
Russia is so corrupt that people have stopped perceiving it as something wrong, rather they internalized it as something unavoidable and "part of the culture" - they've long lost hope of fixing it, given that the political elite owns the legal system, police, armed forces and any dissent or attempt of uncovering the scale of corruption, is quickly eliminated, as was the case of Boris Nemtsov last year.
In Moldova, corrupt politicians allowed a group of criminals to extract $1 billion or 1/8th of the country's GDP into offshore companies and that money was never recovered. It was both sad and comic to see the people on the streets shouting "we want our billion back". Yeah, right.
A former Romanian minister was sentenced to prison in the Microsoft licensing corruption scandal just two days ago. More than $50 million have been paid in bribes in that scandal. Note that we're talking about a small country and just one company.
Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, in fact most of the former USSR (except maybe the Baltic states) are corrupt beyond imagination.
People in Brazil are rioting on the streets right now because the current president gave immunity to the former president, accused of huge corruption and money laundering allegations.
Venezuela is currently a failed state mainly because of the corruption on all levels.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria are failed states with terminal corruption, which inevitably leads to war.
Africa .. I can just guess.
I don't know many details about Asia, but I wouldn't wonder if the picture is similar as in the rest of the 'developing' world.
Corruption is injust, it leads to cynisism and criminal political interest groups, it strengthens the criminal organizations and people loose hope. Eventually it reaches a boiling point, which results in rioting and war, the radical method of reshuffling the power structure.
Sorry for the long comment, but I feel like this issue is on par with climate change - and actually a cause of the latter, so there, I've said it.