Government corruption has become rampant

originally posted by: Shamrock6
It's "become" rampant?

Maybe the OP should change his title to porn has become rampant... Got to love those Government jobs... I work for a 800 employee company and I'm pretty sure if I went to a porn site (one that isn't blocked by chance) my IT department would know rather quickly, and my company emails are not private either..

Maybe the problem is people get into Government jobs and after two years they would need to kill someone to lose that job... I on the other hand, not only can not do any of this stuff and keep my job, but I also need to be good at my job to keep it..

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Shamrock6
It's "become" rampant?

Maybe the OP should change his title to porn has become rampant... Got to love those Government jobs... I work for a 800 employee company and I'm pretty sure if I went to a porn site (one that isn't blocked by chance) my IT department would know rather quickly, and my company emails are not private either..

Maybe the problem is people get into Government jobs and after two years they would need to kill someone to lose that job... I on the other hand, not only can not do any of this stuff and keep my job, but I also need to be good at my job to keep it..

So how do you go about fixing the systemic issue that government regulators are working against their own self interest by actually doing their jobs? It's in their interest to not regulate because their period as a regulator is an extended job interview to a highly paid good job when they leave their current position. We always talk here of politicians reelection campaign starting an hour after they're elected to office. Well, for a government regulator their job interviews that keep their career going begin 5 minutes after they take the regulator job. The government has certain expectations and the industry who will hire them in the future has certain expectations.

How do we fix that?

originally posted by: Aazadan

So how do you go about fixing the systemic issue that government regulators are working against their own self interest by actually doing their jobs? It's in their interest to not regulate because their period as a regulator is an extended job interview to a highly paid good job when they leave their current position. We always talk here of politicians reelection campaign starting an hour after they're elected to office. Well, for a government regulator their job interviews that keep their career going begin 5 minutes after they take the regulator job. The government has certain expectations and the industry who will hire them in the future has certain expectations.

How do we fix that?

We reduce the foot print of Government as a start... It seems people feel that getting a Government job is like winning the lottery, there is no profit required, so mediocre work is OK. The current administration feel that more Government jobs is good, but one just needs to look at Greece to see how that all turns out.

originally posted by: jimmyx
1st...(the porn watchers at the SEC) this article is from april 2010, and it said that during the past 2 and 1/2 years, 31 out of 3500 employees were serious offenders, less than 1%...not exactly my definition of "rampant corruption"
2nd...the NRC article is from nov 2013, and it showed 3 employees, and by that time they were already disciplined.
3rd...the EPA article about the 1 employee how downloaded porn at work and watched it, was still under investigation according to the article...it never said that "the agency never fired him", he retired before they could.

I could go on, but the details are important...if you dig deep enough these few people are caught and dealt with....I say this, because there has been a perception that the title of this thread "GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION HAS BECOME RAMPANT"
is taken as the absolute truth, because ordinary people DON'T dig up the details, they rely on splashy headlines and/or catch-phrases to validate their own pre-conceived notions...and...the main and not-so-main stream media plays this like a finely tuned stradi violin
and for ATS members, we get the same crap thrown at us from people with a political agenda, or ones that need to validate their belief that the entire government is corrupt. divide, separate, repeat...divide, separate, repeat...etc.

He talked about corruption and then went on to describe odd workplace behaviour, which is not the same. The regulatory facilities which are supposed to regulate and control the big players did not so and now they do not need to seen as legislation has been passed that now makes much of what was once illegal legal.

a reply to: Xtrozero

We SHOULD reduce the footprint of the government, but WE can't and THEY won't because it would impede their ability to steal billions and might cost their family members and relative their jobs. And getting a government job is better than the lottery because it gives for life and comes with the finest benefits available to mankind. It is good to see so many like yourself that see the true problem, and perhaps I am too cynical but I see us as having NO options but collapse unless the Fed can and does continue to print worthless sheets of green toilet paper that everyone will still kill each other in order to acquire.

Law makers won't address this situation because they don't want the people looking into their activities. The brotherhood of the corrupt.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
We reduce the foot print of Government as a start... It seems people feel that getting a Government job is like winning the lottery, there is no profit required, so mediocre work is OK. The current administration feel that more Government jobs is good, but one just needs to look at Greece to see how that all turns out.

But how does reducing the foot print of Government actually make things better here? The financial industry isn't over regulated and what regulators there are, aren't even doing their jobs. If we reduce the government we're not paying those people but does that actually make the system noticeably better? Without effective regulation another 2008 is coming.

Don't give talking points, give solutions. Do you want another 2008, or another depression, or a currency collapse? If not, how do you go about preventing it? If you don't want any regulation, why are you upset with the current system which is essentially just that due to corruption?

a reply to: Aazadan

If the government is paid for by tax income and fee/penalty revenue than the cost of running it can actually become greater than the amount brought in and the ensuing problem is not hard to understand. Oh wait, that is where we were a while ago! Ok so you just "borrow" the money and maybe even buy the T Bills ourselves which is tantamount to just printing it up when you need more. Ok, so we have been doing this too for years now, why can't we just print up all the cash we need in ever increasing quantities? Some people say we can and that is what we are going to do to bring about a New Age of Prosperity! I guess anything is possible, but my bet is that this practice is an unsustainable upward debt spiral that can only lead to collapse.

Either way, it will be amusing to watch to say the least.

Unless they're bringing their own devices with them to work, the filters on their work computers should keep them off porn sites. The IT staff should also be able to tell if someone is using a proxy -- but a lot of these workers aren't even tech savy enough to know what a proxy is.

I think a lot of these stories are blown out of proportion to paint government employees in a bad light. We're all frustrated in one form or another with the government, so we jump on anything we hear/see/read and run with it.

When the money runs out, they won't exist anymore in that capacity anymore. I try to see the silver lining in every storm cloud.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Personally, I would feel a lot better if I could be assured that these government clowns spent ALL their time on porn sites. It really gets scary when they actually try to do work and I am not joking. They screw up everything they are involved with.

originally posted by: BennyHavensOh
a reply to: Aazadan

If the government is paid for by tax income and fee/penalty revenue than the cost of running it can actually become greater than the amount brought in and the ensuing problem is not hard to understand. Oh wait, that is where we were a while ago! Ok so you just "borrow" the money and maybe even buy the T Bills ourselves which is tantamount to just printing it up when you need more. Ok, so we have been doing this too for years now, why can't we just print up all the cash we need in ever increasing quantities? Some people say we can and that is what we are going to do to bring about a New Age of Prosperity! I guess anything is possible, but my bet is that this practice is an unsustainable upward debt spiral that can only lead to collapse.

Either way, it will be amusing to watch to say the least.

There's multiple issues here. One of them is the creation of massive amounts of money to keep our financial industry solvent, they have trillions floating between them to keep the books on the up and up. That is an effect of the 2008 crash, it was quite literally the last most desperate trick in the book to prevent a complete currency implosion. That's bad but that's not all that's going on. The regulators are supposed to be pushing the banks to implement reforms that slowly bring them back to a solid footing. That isn't happening, instead they're watching porn.

I explained the reason above, the regulators want to stay employed too and if they cost the banks money they won't have a job when their regulatory term ends. The industry is dictating their own terms, this isn't a case of big government pushing corporations around, this is a case of big corporations dictating to our government the terms by which they will do business. I don't know about you but to me government is of the people by the people and for the people. These corporations are a power above our government which is supposed to be the supreme law of the land. That means bigger more powerful government is needed, such as a regulatory body that can actually do it's job.

It's not just me saying this either.

www.theguardian.com...

That's the story of Carmen Segarra, one of the whistleblowers on the regulatory "industry" look up what she has said. It really explains the problem.

originally posted by: BennyHavensOh
a reply to: MystikMushroom

Personally, I would feel a lot better if I could be assured that these government clowns spent ALL their time on porn sites. It really gets scary when they actually try to do work and I am not joking. They screw up everything they are involved with.

So you find the business as usual approach that caused 2008 to be more scary than the approach we had from the 1930's through the 1980's?

a reply to: Aazadan

I love in an area where a lot of these Wall Street financial thieves live and prosper and am under the understanding that the own the government and when the government is doing what they do they are actually just making these Wall Street Wolves richer. Consider if you will the long history of our government higher ups all starting out at places like Goldman Sachs:

www.nytimes.com...

And that's just GS. The government IS Wall Street. Those not directly employed or formerly employed are simply on the dole. We are alone and naked in the night and are basically just kept around for sport or as working slaves. But do not despair, we can still get drunk and high and get laid occasionally so life is not all that bad in the Gulag after all.

a reply to: BennyHavensOh

None of what you said is false, but I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion. Regulators serve as a check on industry power, it gets business out of government, limits how they can use their money, and prevents high risk practices. Smaller government leads to regulators having less power and right now they have virtually none. What we need right now in that sector is larger more powerful government that can serve as a check on the bankers power. We need career regulators, we need those regulators to not be employed by the companies they're opposing, and we need them to have the power to implement reforms.

We currently have none of that. They are completely inept and powerless.

a reply to: Aazadan

Yes you are correct and I am very cynical I admit. What we need are honest, ethical men, but with a system that is corrupt and based on pay to play how can there be any hope of change? I have been elected as Committeeman before and served as Mayor twice as well. I am currently on the ballot again and on the Economic Development Committee as well. I have dealt with State beasts such as COAH and Federal Godzillas like the EPA often as well. It is a losing battle against unfathomable incompetence and power but I am stupid and refuse to lie down and die. But honestly, I see NO hope for any of us. Fly, be free, save yourselves, it is too late for me. I will hold them back as long as I can. Sorry, but doing that occasionally helps relieve the pressure.

a reply to: BennyHavensOh

Being ethical is one thing, but being ethical doesn't feed you or maintain your career. Read the story of Carmen Segarra the woman is brilliant. She's fluent in four languages, has dual masters degrees, and decades of experience in the financial industry. She was completely powerless and ultimately fired for trying to do her job. A job she lost because she took the ethical move of saying GS's actions were extremely dangerous to the taxpayer.

The corporation is more powerful than the government, and the only way to fix that is through legal decree that limits the power of the corporation. Let me tell you a story about the small town I used to live in. It was pure chance I happened across this information. For a bit of background, I moved from one small town to another about 4 hours away a year ago, and there's a coffee shop here in this new town that I like to frequent.

A few months ago I was sitting in the coffee shop and a few city council members of my former town happened to come in and discuss business, using that good old loophole of discussing things in a public place out of earshot of anyone who would care. The jist of that conversation was that their town has a real unemployment rate of 40% and that half of the remaining employees belonged to Walmart. Walmart was using the threat of closing shop and firing everyone to dictate to the city certain conditions like tax breaks and the prevention of any businesses being established that could be competition.

They were trying to solve this problem and they were trying to do so in secret because they can't admit in public that Walmart is secretly running the city, and that the unemployment rate is so high. From high level federal government and Goldman Sachs to low level government and Walmart this problem is corrupting government at all levels.

We are on the verge of becoming a corporatocracy if we aren't already there. I oppose the small government mantra in these types of situations because every inch the government gives up, these corporations take as new found power.

In my opinion the biggest downfall of our current system is that our representatives don't come from a diverse skill base anymore. Most are lawyers and a few are doctors. I would feel much better about these 535 people in Congress if a few were engineers, computer programmers, mathematicians, plumbers, electricians, poker players, lawyers, bankers (yes, even them), teachers, truck drivers, and many more. We have created an echo chamber where everyone enters office with largely the same viewpoints and preconceptions. With diversity we could take a multidisciplined approach to problems as they happen and come up with better solutions.

a reply to: Aazadan

Wow, you blew me away with that one. A shame I don't have a few like you here in my Township. I am prejudiced I admit because I spent my career as an engineer myself, but it seems to me that during and after WWII, engineers ran a lot of US industry and built it into a powerhouse because engineers are practical by nature. When the bean counters, lawyers and career politicians took over it went to hell. Can we fix it? Bob the Builder says yes we can, but I say good fricken luck. If there were more like you and I out there and we could put our efforts together maybe we might have a shot, but we would more likely BE shot as terrorists. However hopeless it may be, I shall keep up the fight and I know you will too, that helps me knowing I am not alone, thank you.