Whenever I see Vladimir Putin in the news I think
about corruption and what Russia could have been without it. I realize that Putin is just
the top of the corruption pyramid, he´s the symbol of the rotten condition of
things in Russia. And I also realize corruption isn´t unique to Russia. It
seems to pervade the world everywhere.
Putin´s trip to Brazil has received a lot of coverage because
he´s trying to extend Russian influence in Latin America. The trip included
stopovers in Nicaragua and Cuba (both nations are ruled by autocratic regimes
which survive thanks to their status as Venezuela´s parasites).
During this trip Putin met with his counterparts in the
BRICS confederacy. Here´s a photograph of the proud leaders posing for their
group photograph
Rouseff,
Putin, Singh, Hu, and Zuma (Journal do Brazil)
Corruption in Russia isn´t unique, it´s highlighted
because it´s so pervasive and because it drains so much potential from the
Russian people, who see incompetent thiefs steal their money and take it abroad
to buy football teams, mansions, super yatchs and super models.
Russian
oligarch´s $100 million USD yatch
An interesting point raised recently in the media is
the fact that corruption in these countries seems to be associated with nationalism
and/or ultra religiosity. People in corrupt nations accept corruption if these corrupt leaders mix capitalism, populism, and religion in the appropriate doses to keep the economy
growing.
Putin emphasizes Russian nationalism, homophobia, and
promotes the Russian Orthodox Church. In other nations, for example in Turkey,
the government tends to peddle Islam as a cover for their corruption. Brazil´s
Dilma Rouseff was trying to cover corruption building football stadiums and
holding sports events. And this would
have worked but she did fail to deliver a strong growing economy.
Her buddy the autocrat Nicolás Maduro peddles
nationalism and a cult of personality of their dead Chávez. This may have
worked and allowed chavista hyper corruption to continue, but the economy went
to hell, and this has made Maduro so unpopular his own red cadres are getting
ready to toss him out.
Who is really smiling in that BRICS group? Hu. Chinese “communists” have mixed
corrupt and savage capitalism while invoking the glory of ancient China, but
they also deliver record economic growth on the backs of an exploited working
class. The Chinese people live with obscene pollution, human rights abuses, and
14 hour a day work hours…but they see the economy growing, and even though they
realize the government is both corrupt and abusive they aren´t about to rock
that boat too hard (for now).
Chinese workers wearing masks (Vancouver Sun)
REFERENCES
The continued growth of unchecked concentrations of power (through unchecked concentration of wealth) is the defining global crisis of our age. Global Neofuedalism is an existential threat to western civilization as we know it. Without a change in the individual attitudes of normal people toward allowing unchecked accumulation of wealth (which, by definition, is unchecked accumulation of power) and the unregulated use of that wealth to influence the world we will see the system collapse in on itself as climate change drives natural disasters that the system has become too inflexible to cope with.
ResponderEliminarThe first step toward fixing the problem is getting people to agree that there needs to be an upper limit on the amount of wealth and power any one person or group should be allowed to accumulate. This will, of course, be painted as "class warfare" or "communism" or whatever stupid talking point is being circulated at the time, but what it really is is collective self defense.
Humans can not be trusted with the amount of power that one can wield when one controls, say, the Walton Empire. If you want to lessen corruption, you need to take the mechanism by which corruption happens out of the hands of the people who wield it.
That's fixed with an inheritance or estate tax. I don't see a practical way to impose a limit on wealth, but wealth itself can be taxed, it's just an extension of real estate taxes. Just put a tiny tax on everything, and reduce taxes elsewhere. The idea after all is to limit centralized state power, which tends to corrupt and leads to human rights abuses.
Eliminar