Is your government corrupt?

[Moontanman]

http://www.gizmag.com/transparency-international-corruption-perceptions-index/20730/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6c9ea

[michel123456]

Interesting.

It looks like corruption is a cultural factor: all modern occidental cultures have a best score against oldest eastern or even mediterranean culture.

from your link

[JohnB]

Also interesting is that it is perception, not neccessarily reality.

 

If a nation has been corrupt for generations, even if the government cleans up its act it will be percieved as corrupt for quite some time afterwards.

[CharonY]

Also, certain types of corruption may not be perceived as strongly as corruption as others.

[Phi for All]

When the corruption is enacted as law, as happens quite often in the US, does it still get counted as corruption? I think historians 50 years from now will point to the Iraq war as one of the biggest, most corrupt scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Maybe if you put enough 0s behind the number, corruption turns into plain old politics.

[kitkat]

When the corruption is enacted as law, as happens quite often in the US, does it still get counted as corruption? I think historians 50 years from now will point to the Iraq war as one of the biggest, most corrupt scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Maybe if you put enough 0s behind the number, corruption turns into plain old politics.

 

 

When corruption is viewed as "plain old politics" there is a hugh price we pay as citizens in the U.S., laws were once based on morality and they served to protect its citizens from criminal minded individuals. Now, our justice system has been infiltrated with criminal minded individuals whose sole objective is to make a profit so they no longer serve to protect its citizens. The problem is many people are still blindsighted and believe our justice system is not corrupt until the individual has the misfortune of experiencing the justice system with a first offense.

 

As citizens, we do not demand accountability from our government, we don't have a system in place that protects its citizens when the government no longer serves its people and becomes a threat to its citizens ability to survive. Laws are being manipulated on a regular basis to increase profit for Federal and State authorities which in my opinion, are based on greed and power which is the opposite of a fair justice system.

 

We cannot improve our system based on this acceptance of corruption as being the "norm" and this attitude will eventually cause our society to collapse. The reason why the masses do not want to accept this reality is mainly due to the fact that the masses would feel obligated to do something about it. The masses are comfortable being sheep and they are not comfortable with having to take actions against their herder who is not doing its job. Restructuring a system results in chaos and fear since the system will retaliate against anyone attempting to fix it.

 

The question posed from the op, "is your government corrupt?" YES!

 

Now the next question is, "what do we do about it?"

[michel123456]

Also interesting is that it is perception, not neccessarily reality.

Right.

 

Interesting is the parallel with tax haven countries:

excerpts from the wiki article (emphasis mine)

A tax haven is a state or a country or territory where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all while offering due process, good governance and a low corruption rate.

(...)

There are several definitions of tax havens. The Economist has tentatively adopted the description by Geoffrey Colin Powell (former economic adviser to Jersey): "What ... identifies an area as a tax haven is the existence of a composite tax structure established deliberately to take advantage of, and exploit, a worldwide demand for opportunities to engage in tax avoidance." The Economist points out that this definition would still exclude a number of jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens.[2] Similarly, others have suggested that any country which modifies its tax laws to attract foreign capital could be considered a tax haven.[3] According to other definitions,[4] the central feature of a haven is that its laws and other measures can be used to evade or avoid the tax laws or regulations of other jurisdictions.

(...)

See also: List of offshore financial centres and Tax rates around the world

The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research has suggested that roughly 15% of countries in the world are tax havens, that these countries tend to be small and affluent, and that better governed and regulated countries are more likely to become tax havens, and are more likely to be successful if they become tax havens.[25]

 

No two commentators can generally agree on a "list of tax havens", but the following countries are commonly cited as falling within the "classic" perception of a sovereign tax haven.

 

Andorra

The Bahamas

Cyprus

Ireland

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Mauritius

Monaco

Panama

San Marino

Seychelles

Switzerland

 

And indeed some countries clear as water like Luxembourg (number 11) are listed winner on the transparency record. One may notice also Singapore (5) & Switzerland (9).

See below

http://www.gizmag.com/transparency-international-corruption-perceptions-index/20730/picture/149956/

 

My personnal view is that wonderful wealthy peacuful countries live on tax evadations from corrupted other countries.

Edited December 7, 2011 by michel123456

[imatfaal]

Purely anecdotally - one of the countries in the top ten is widely regarded in my industry as the most corrupt place to trade; where brown envelope diplomacy is essential to do business, and is a clearing house for bribery in the region. Go figure. Additionally many of these surveys concentrate on the recipient of the bribe rather than the donor - in my morality and head, in a situation in which a rich businessman from the west bribes a poor government official in the developing world it is the briber rather than the bribee who bears the most blame and is most worthy of censure

[michel123456]

(...) brown envelope diplomacy (...)

I didn't know that expression. I knew U.T.T. (Under The Table).

 

What industry?

[imatfaal]

I didn't know that expression. I knew U.T.T. (Under The Table).

 

What industry?

 

The expression could be original - I just wanted a word to go after brown envelope. The industry is shipping - the country is fairly obvious, but I better not spell it out.

[Newbies_Kid]

Yes, my government is corrupt. Corrupt in economy, corrupt in power, corrupt in freedom, corrupt in election and corrupt in moral.