(03-23-2009 08:13 AM)emmiesix Wrote:  When it comes to corruption in government, it's so pervasive and ingrained in the culture that only a real change in our cultural values could probably eradicate it.

There is one, and only one, way to reduce the influence of money upon government, and that is to reduce the role of government in distributing money. The former is directly and inevitably proportional to the latter.

Such reduction could actually be achievable by deliberate policy (unlike a general moral improvement in mankind, which would be a much bigger uphill battle -- and in any case, state-direct moral education has its own risks). However, people who favor such reduction are usually dismissed as reactionary crackpots by the chattering classes, who seem to be preternaturally fond of government -- perhaps because they almost always imagine themselves doing the governing. Perhaps more importantly, such reduction would be vehemently (in some cases violently) opposed by the many, many constituencies that have grown accustomed to their various favors.