Reply #87: Money Corrupts Absolutely [View All]

[DallasNE]

The storyline is different and much more disturbing but the common thread to all of these corruption cases is money and lots of it. Jack Abramoff, Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers, Penn State -- big, big money and big, big corruption (and other illegal activities) often with a coverup. It is what triggered Occupy Wallstreet. Sure, they singled out the biggest, most corrupt of these but they are all pieces of the same puzzle. It is like these people and organizations became too big to succeed and imploded from their own corruption. One place to start to clean up the corruption is public financing of federal elections, excluding outside ads as well. Another is to prohibit an elected official and their entire immediate family from ever working as a lobbyist. That wouldn't fix the Penn State problem. Ethics lapses on such a grand scale due to the money involved is a tough nut to crack. And "they all do it" is no excuse either but some steps can be taken that would make a huge dent in the corruption issue. Occupy Wallstreet holding peoples feet to the fire is another example of what can be done to reverse the tragic course our country has embarked on.