#132 Negative Mount Pleasant DECEMBER 6, 2018 A small town in Wisconsin becomes the site of a completely unprecedented experiment. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/wbhjwd
It left me at the end of the episode thinking, foxconn came in like a fox and conned everyone involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Chairs_(1970_film)
But reading the wikipedia description of the book, it's the same premise: characters attempting to obtain jewelry hidden in a chair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Chairs
Are you thinking of a different story?
Edit: ah, apparently that's a part of the novel, which if it's in the Mel Brooks film, I don't recall: "bamboozling a village chess club with promises of an international tournament."
Is also the plot of the infamous eponymous Gaslight.
states are the canonical units of governance in the US. towns/cities have no budget or power on their own. that's all delegated from the state, analogous to allowing VP's access to their company's credit line. since it's (literally) a ward of the state, the responsibility for debts also fall on the state in cases of insolvency of the municipality.
note that state and local muni bonds are the same thing--borrowing against a state's future tax earnings (often at great cost).
It is unbelievable how dumb and corrupt some local governments are. Especially disturbing how heartless these people can be to their own town folk.
This is like some 3rd world country local government kind of banana republic. Unbelievable.
It is partly caused by the (1) extreme levels of devolution; (2) politicisation of every level of public life (eg., even judges are elected); (3) barriers to removal of elected people from office.
Kind of a perfect storm: elect everything, make being directly elected sacred, and nearly impossible to undo.
In the UK almost everything is appointed, including the prime minister who is not directly elected to the office. The PM is then quite often removed from office, along with the whole class of unelected civil servants whose entire careers are spent working for the government regardless of who is in office.
The huge levels of institutional professionalisation this allows basically makes corruption nearly impossible.
A major issue in corruption research is this "perception" point -- this method relativizes the definition, at best, and largely renders it useless.
The issue here is that Americans mostly think of corruption in terms of bribes, etc. rather than the "abuse of public trust".
eg., a judge decides to appoint a guardian with a conflict of interest to manage the estate of a elder person -- is that judge corrupt?
In the UK most people would say, "yes". In the US, "no". That while his action may not be the best / moral / right, etc. it's not seen as an abuse of the office -- he has the power to decide and therefore his decision isn't corrupt.
I think this view comes from the written-constitution approach to defining the powers of offices. In the UK many powers are held by convention and only under the assumption that they are being used justly -- an extra legal criterion.
It's very hard to measure corruption due to these issues. Personally I'd say most senior office holders appointed by trump are corrupt -- from the EPA to the FCC, to the consumer protection bureau. I think many people in the UK would agree: these appointees deliberately undermine the operation of these agencies -- and are therefore abusing the public trust.
(some) Americans however would see frustrating good government as a valid way to govern.
Under this "public trust" definition, corruption in america is routine and common place. From Sheriffs, to the police, to municipal and national executives. The trust placed in the office to execute it on behalf of the people is routinely abused.
Distinguish here: congress deciding not to have a CPB (, EPA, etc.) with an executive appointment to execute the mission of the CPB on behalf of the public.
To frustrate the latter is corruption.
By the way, anyone looking for a little fun follow up, a WordPress crash outed the owner of the A Better Mount Pleasant blog: https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/pfc_complaint_-_robe...