[ExI] government corruption, was: RE: Social Mobility and Bioconservatism

[painlord2k at libero.it]

Il 21/02/2009 18.14, BillK ha scritto:
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 4:43 PM, painlord2k wrote:
>> I would think that bigger corporations deal much more with governments than
>> little corporations. So it is all governments corporations.

> I don't understand.

English is not my mother language, so let reformulate.

Corporations are run by human beings as governments, so both are prone 
to corruptions as are the humans beings.

Corporations are more honest than government because they need to keep 
their customers always satisfied, or risk to lose them and their money.
Governments are not under the same pressure to keep their customers happy.
Someone wrote that people vote with the ballots one time every four 
years and with their money many times every day.

Corporations are greed but they will be only interested in corrupting 
governments officials only if there is something to gain and if this 
gain justify the risks taken and the efforts spent.

Bigger is the role of the governments in the economy, bigger will be the 
money that will be possible to gain with the corruption of the people 
running the government. The difficult to verify what the governments 
agents (bureaucrats and politicos) will grow with the size of the 
government.

> Are you saying that business is equally as corrupt as government, therefore
> destroy both?

No.
But if you reduce the size of the government and the power and money it 
is able to control directly or indirectly, the corporations will have 
not the same interest in corrupting the government.
The act of corrupting someone is dangerous and costly as is the act of 
accepting a bribery. People do so only if it is rewarding.
Smaller is the government more dangerous and costly it become and lower 
is the reward.


> 2) Or that corrupt business only deals with corrupt government and
> never defrauds the general public?

> This is obviously wrong.

Business and government will defraud the public if there is a reward to 
do it. But given the incentives existing in a market, business will not 
be so prone to defraud the public as much as the governments.
Why?
Business can not force the people to pay for something the people don't 
want. If prices are too high, quality is too low or something is to of 
liking of the buyers, the business will end or will reduce in a short 
amount of time.

Governments can force the people to pay for something they don' want. To 
change this state people need to change the government and this is a 
slow and complex thing.

Another point is that people pay business for a single service or good 
every time. So the business know what is demand and what is not.
The government, mainly the big governments, do many things and when 
people vote they buy a bundle of goods and services (if the government 
fulfil its promises). It become more difficult to understand the real 
value of the bundle than to evaluate any and all transactions.

The presence of a big government allow the business to exploit the power 
of the government to the business advantage. Any organized group can be 
a "business": from the illegal ones to the religious ones, to the 
corporations, to the unions or the advocacy groups for whatever.
They all go and try to convince the governments (or one branch) to help 
them in some way; in turn they will help the government (or one branch) 
in some other way.

If the government can not give nothing or can give not much of interest 
the business will not be interested in corrupting it and the government 
officials will not be able to sell anything someone want or ask.
So people willing to enter the government to sell favours will not enter 
in a small government and the government will not be prone to corruption.

Mirco