Why is corruption always passed off as incompetence or mistaken ideology?

[noise]

For example one popular talking point suggests that the corruption on Wall Street is attributable to true believers who had no idea that reducing regulation would lead to serious problems.

Or how about the notion that invading and occupying countries (i.e. Iraq) is truly a good way to install a democratic system.

Sometimes corruption is corruption. The motives aren't pure. The media can spin anything.

[Hannah Bell]

1. Because it's the corrupt or their pals writing the excuses?

[The Magistrate]

2. A Sound Point, Sir: People Steal, Often, Just To Have The Stuff....

"Some men rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

[leftstreet]

3. People with entitlement disorders ALWAYS have lists of excuses

and sadly everyone wants to believe them, rather than the obvious

[The Magistrate]

4. 'Entitlement Disorder' Is An Excellent Coinage, Sir

There is indeed a suite of symptoms it encapsulates well.

[Solly Mack]

5. Better to be thought incompetent than criminal.

Politicians would much rather people believed them idiots than see them as thugs.

Same with Wall Street.

Also, there's class snobbery at play.

A common street thug who picks your pocket is somehow worse than the college educated financier that does the same. Money (power of office/power itself) as the coin that, somehow, buys integrity and the inability to act wrongly with the worst motives. You know, the "good intentions" excuse...

When you speak of unchecked corruption within an institution - such as government or banking/investing - then you're talking the possibility of corruption being built in by those who benefit the most from it... and if so, then the system itself is corrupt. Well, if the system is corrupt then there's no equality, no justice, and no "dream" to aspire to....because the system is rigged. Well, there goes trust in the institution.

But....if something bad or even horrible is caused by someone's incompetence...then there's somewhere to place the blame and it's not at the system. Of course, if they're white collar incompetents then they had the best of motives and were simply wrong. They weren't criminal, you see...merely mistaken. (and everyone makes mistakes, right?) Fire them or maybe even give them more training....but don't regulate the system.

Sure, every now and then someone goes to prison - perhaps they were too blatant in their greed. Too much exposure. Perhaps an example is demanded to take the heat from the whole. To give the impression that something is being done. Problem solved!

The fox and the hen-house....a fox guards the hens, but then steals and eats a hen, and the elder foxes passes judgment on the erring fox. The hens must retain trust in their guardian fox. Otherwise the hens might question why a fox, who steals and eats chickens, is supposed to be guarding them. The elder foxes tell the hens that the fox was acting with the best of intentions and thought that by removing one hen, the other hens might have more to eat, which would increase fertility, creating more hens, which is an increase in production and that trickles down to everyone. The elder foxes explain that the guardian fox didn't understand that stealing and killing the hen would harm the hen-house community - he was just trying to help. Is helping others a crime? Is trying to protect others a crime? Is just doing your job a crime? Of course not! Let's not criminalize politics being a guardian.

So the hens see that the other foxes all agree that the guardian fox made a mistake, was incompetent - so the guardian fox is removed and another fox takes his place. Accountability is served and the hens are hopeful. The dismissed fox returns to the elders as one of them.

But if the actions of the fox are seen as criminal then the fox needs to be arrested and prosecuted...and the entire system of foxes guarding hens comes into question.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Because it keeps the well connected out of prison. n/t

[xiamiam]

7. also that their actions were legal which i dont quite believe

collusion, corruption all in the name of greed and de regulation..something is illegal if it takes down millions of people

[gratuitous]

8. And all this incompetence just happens to put more money into their overstuffed pockets

Gee, I'd feel my competence slipping, too.

[bemildred]

9. Everybody believes in something, they believe in taking the money. nt

[intaglio]

10. The invading and occupying thing did work, think of

Germany, Italy, South Korea and Japan. Portugal and Spain were left to fester 1971 and 1974.

That said conquest probably is far from the best way.

[closeupready]

11. People don't want to see corruption anymore.

Then again, some behaviors that are illegal under the laws of many other First World nations is perfectly legal here, and in my opinion, reflects poorly on the integrity of the institutions that run our government.