Friday, October 14, 2016

Government officials sell state-owned enterprises to private buyers, then funnel out the cash received via unprovable corruption [COMPACTIDEA]

Happens all over the world, including so-called developed and civilized states of the West. Governments sell state-owned companies to private buyers, and then the shining cash that enters the state coffers is quickly funneled out via preferential tenders, overpriced contracts, unneeded maintenance/repair activities, and so on. Great way these politicians have devised to fill their own pockets by convincing the public that they're doing some sort of "economic reforms" by privatizing government-owned companies. True objective is to fill up personal coffers by filling up state coffers by selling away public's property to private hands in the name of reforms. When companies remain in state hands, money comes to the government very slowly [in the form of annual taxes and share of profits, if any], but because each minister thinks that he has only 4-5 years to make money [while he's in power], he wants to quickly auction off state enterprises so that the state coffers can fill up very fast.



Sunday, September 18, 2016

Votes of the poor are easier to buy - hence poverty in population is an enabler of corruption [COMPACTIDEA]

It seems that poor people's votes can be swayed [much more] easily by giving free food, liquor, etc. That's the popular belief here in Punjab, and people commonly talk that some of the large local political parties bribe the poor during elections to buy their votes. Poverty, hence, is a supporter of corruption, especially because the weight of one vote of a poor fellow is the same as that of a rich folk. Reduction in poverty will make this purchase of votes more difficult/expensive.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Governments should be punished harshly for taking some stance publicly but acting in opposite way in private [COMPACTIDEA]

  • Event: ‘European Governments and the BDS Wars: Public Opposition, Private Support?’ [link]
  • Event Summary: ‘European Governments and the BDS Wars: Public Opposition, Private Support?’ [link]
  • Latest Hillary emails show her private support for trade deals she publicly opposed [link]
  • Hillary Clinton answers for saying politicians need 'a public and a private position' on issues [link]
  • Hillary: You Need A ‘Public’ And ‘Private’ Position On Every Issue [link]
  • Washington publicly calm, privately concerned over Jordan's aid to Iraq [link]
  • EGYPTIANS ARE DISAPPOINTED BY THE JORDANIAN-P.L.O. RIFT [link]
  • Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton’s Bodyguards Should Disarm to ‘See What Happens to Her’ [link]
  • Virginia Governor Photographed With Willie Nelson’s Pot — But Arrests Thousands for Possession [link]
  • Deposit in bank accounts of political parties exempt from tax [link]
  • [Sep'17] When the Indian government rolled out GST in mid-2017, it kept petroleum products [petrol, diesel, kerosene, etc.] outside the GST system. This exception itself can be called profiteering, by the government itself. Also, this government has relentlessly increased both the retail prices of petrol and diesel, and also the cess/duty/excise/tax charged on these products in order to offset any fall in international crude prices, thus extracting more and more from pockets of the people. This is not just a clear case of profiteering, it is also tantamount to daylight theft. This is to be seen against the government's warnings to the public to not engage in profiteering post the rollout of GST. [link 1]
Similarly, governments and government officials should be automatically/harshly punished for doing or favoring things that they prohibit the general public from doing. And from publicly endorsing a position different from their private positions.