Friday, October 23, 2020

Why They Will Always Be On the Take Under a Central State

 Are the Biden's guilty of taking money from foreign companies, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, in exchange for influence in U.S. policy? The evidence is overwhelming that they are and that Joe Biden is lying when he said he knew nothing about it. But they are far from alone. There is a long line of spouses, children, and relatives from both parties getting paid by various interests far in excess of any reasonable estimate of their actual value. 

Donald Trump's children haven't done that much yet, but he's only been in government four years, not forty-seven like Biden. Already, Jared Kushner has done some things that seem to me like he is moving in the same direction. Mostly though, the Trump kids have only looted Republican donors, paying their spouses and girlfriends from party funds, not selling out the country. Again though, they've not had as long to let the system draw them in to impropriety. 

Some of you may be tempted to think that the answer is "Term Limits". It isn't. Or at least that can only slow the process down. The problem is the vast scope of power that the Central State possess. When the Central Government has the power to micromanage a Twenty Trillion Dollar domestic economy and is meddling in other nations all over the globe, there are just too many chips on one table. Hustlers are going to offer vast fortunes to get in on that game, and sooner or later the politicians will succumb, telling themselves and you whatever lies need to be said to justify it.

This situation will occur and re-occur in a proliferation of forms until we eliminate the root problem- there is too much power and money heaped up in one central location. This is going to invite corruption because the corruptors can make money even spending vast amounts of money and effort to empower it. Decentralization means that the "jackpot" of corruption is much smaller, and looks much less enticing compared to the rewards of making an honest living. If it happens, it is easier to catch an correct than if it occurs in some distant imperial city by the extremely powerful who would then have access to a tremendous amount of capital to preserve their position.

We simply must decentralize the state if it isn't to collapse in an orgy of corruption and mismanagement. And localism is all about how to decentralize the state. If you think the problem is Joe Biden, or Donald Trump for that matter, then you are focusing on the symptom, not the real cause.