The Real Face of Corruption

Dean Baker again delivers an ideation which provokes serious thought. The current reign of legislative action, which does not just start with the Bush administration, has been to route Government subsidies through Private firms whenever possible; all for the sole purpose of generating Corporate profits. This may not be entirely a bad practice, as circumstances can dictate that Private Concerns can deliver Services at better Price and less bureaucracy creation. It becomes a vitally different matter when such reroute generates a massive increase of Government expenditures to provide the same Services. It is a further problem if Journalism has been so incorporated that such activities are not reported. We find Corruption here because of such practices; such effect not just being limited to Third World nations.

The practice is especially bad in the field of Health Care. Here, Private Insurance has joined with Government misbehavior to wildly inflate the Cost of all services. There is widespread resistence to any form of Government assumption of Medical Services, though there is vast demand for Government assumption of the Costs of Medical Services. Why? The basic causation consists of the fact medical provision in this Country is twice the Cost of other Developed Nations, and with less viable Outcomes from Medical treatment. Almost all of these added Costs comes in the extra provision of Profits–both Individual and Corporate–settling into the Pockets of the leadership concerned in the provision of Medical Services. Ordinary Employees concerned with Health Provision see little of the Gains garnered by this practice.

Corruption, though, is not limited solely to the Health industry. We have Troops undersupplied and military units understaffed, many of which are deployed in the field, while major Contracts are fully funded to produce futuristic weaponry which will never reach Field Complement; solely because rich Corporate Profits can be attained by mystical Research and Development. Road construction expands at massive rate, while Road maintenance languishes; mainly due to the vast Corporate Profits resident in new construction, and minimal Profits attainable in Road resurfacing. Vast tracts of farmland is falling into urban use, and Land Prices have become exorbitant; this due to Tax law which gives advantage to holding Mortgages–leaving vast numbers of empty shells dotting the landscape.

One should consider all economic costs associated with all of the above practices. We have overuse of Resources, misuse of Land, misdirection of Labor assets, failure to provide essential services, misappropriation of funds, and artificial creation of wealth by governmental regulation. All such activity reduces Wages, distorts the Standard of Living of All affected, reduces actual Employment through misallocation of Resources, and endangers life through non-provision of essential services to the Needy. Americans should not complacently dismiss Corruption and its practices as Third World invention, because it operates with dangerous effect right here as well. lgl