Comment by edias | Hacker News Reader

Comment by edias | Hacker News Reader

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>I've had the impression it was a kleptocracy run by bankers.

Is this really the view that foreigners have the how the states is run?

We actually rank among the least corrupt nations in the world depending on if you trust Transparency International or not. I guess you could say it's legalized corruption through lobbying and political donations, which I agree with to some extent, but even than it wouldn't be bankers. Pharmaceuticals top that list with room to spare, where as "Securities and Investments" don't even make top 5.

Lawyers are really the people who run America and anyone who has any sort of political ambitions will get a law degree, not become a banker.

Obviously the Citizens United case (the one that allows Corporations to donate) was fucked, but it's not like 20+ years ago everything was fine either. I really think this is just a result of HN/reddit having such a young demographic, no one remembers how bad things used to be as well.

Iran Contra? MK Ultra? The FBI under Hoover? Police assaulting union workers because why the fuck not? Rampant political corruption by organized crime in the 20s/30s?

You know the phrase "I wan't America to be the way I grew up in"? It's not because America was different, it's because you were a kid and didn't see any of it.

> Is this really the view that foreigners have the how the states is run?

Might be just people I interact with, but terms like plutocracy, kleptocracy, and theocracy all come up fairly regularly. As does police state, for that matter. Terms like republic or democracy seldom get mentioned -- not seriously anyway.

(Not saying the grass is so much greener elsewhere, mind you.)

> We actually rank among the least corrupt nations in the world depending on if you trust Transparency International or not.

I don't trust them personally, but I'm in full agreement with that point nonetheless, having seen and experienced corruption first hand in developing countries.

> I guess you could say it's legalized corruption through lobbying and political donations, which I agree with to some extent, but even than it wouldn't be bankers. Pharmaceuticals top that list with room to spare, where as "Securities and Investments" don't even make top 5.

Unless, perhaps, you count TARP and under-the-counter bailouts that Bernanke handed over in recent years. But I'll happily concede if I ever see material clawbacks and jailtime for the related ill-gotten gains.

> Lawyers are really the people who run America and anyone who has any sort of political ambitions will get a law degree, not become a banker.

The same is largely true in any country [and time] where a significant bureaucracy is leveraged to run a large enough political unit. Which is to say just about every country nowadays, bar warzones such as Somalia.

Also, that doesn't mean that these countries are run for lawyers. If anything, the cynic in me wants to compare them to valets who are content to cooperate with their masters in order to keep the small amount of privileges that they have over the masses.

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