Corruption Modes

I was going to write on Intellectual Property today, until I ran across this article. I immediately determined I wanted a greater wealth of information from this Survey than I could ascertain. First and foremost, I wanted a Comparison survey conducted in the United States and western Europe. Was the Survey indications solely concentrated in the Transition Countries? Are the older Generations any happier in the West? The Survey indicated that Corruption was the major problem, was it also considered the major Problem in the West? And if so, did the Survey contain the segregated Questions necessary to determine if the fears of Corruption were real and widespread? Citizens in Transition Countries remain unconvinced of the virtues of free markets; segregated Questions need to included to test this Conviction, and similar study need be conducted in the advanced Economies. The operative condition dictates a use of Segregated Questions to divest the surveyed Answers from popular beliefs, and to have conducted the Survey through both Test and Control economies.

The Readers must understand this was potentially a vital Survey, and seriously mishandled. We do not need to test for popular perceptions, but for actual existence of Corruption, failures of the market system, and a real evaluation of the Living Standards today as compared to pre-Transition era. The Economy and Market express real direction, not popular reaction to the matrix. Economists need to know and understand this real direction, and adjust their models to reflect the real input that is received.

The Survey only outlines a real Popular paranoia in these Transition nations. It does not fixate whether this paranoia extends into the Advanced Economies. It highlights a great fear of Corruption (which to an Economist distorts the natural flow of the Markets); but it does not factually assert it’s real existence or growth, or whether this growth has extended into the Advanced Economies. These are important fundamentals which must be answered satisfactorily for a variety of reasons.

There stands the eternal evaluation of where Government program works better than Market forces. An Example is Universal Health Care: where the United States has lagged behind almost every other advanced nation; with major failures in adequate Health Care, worse Outcomes, and noted for its non-Coverage. Another area has been the Banking de-regulation in the United States, which has led to fraudulent (anywhere else) extension of Credit and usurious rates (again, anywhere else). The United States (but Most other advanced Economies as well) may well practice Intellectual Property usury, vastly over-charging above Production Costs in deep Rent-Seeking; I have long been an Advocate for Patent and Copyright extension of only set levels of Royalties per unit, based upon a Economic consideration of the amount of use. Corruption can exist in many forms and guise, and it is more than a simple consideration of a level Playing field. Major market distortions derive from such manipulations, Governments are only one source of such malefactor performance. lgl