On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 09:50:35PM -0600, John Hasler wrote: > David Palmer. wrote:
> > Put all politicians on a wage of $500.00/week, and make it a capital
> > offense to take a political bribe, and you would get the ones that want
> > to do the job for the right reasons.
>
> No. You'd get the ones that want to do the job for all the worst possible
> reasons. Under those conditions only fanatics and crackpots would run for
> office.
This is true, but you could take a huge step in the right direction just
by applying a halfway-sane definition of "political bribe" in the first
place, and making sure it comes with stiff penalties.
Half of the stuff that gets called "campaign contribution" in the US
would get both parties ten years in jail if you tried it in any other
democracy in the world.
How Enron donating a billion dollars (that it got from stockholders by
fraud) to G. W. Bush's presidential campaign (for example) contributes
to freedom, democracy, and fair elections is a mystery to me.
Cheers!
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