Re Bill Bonner’s view of US politics in Friday’s issue: 

“Pleased to know that Bill Bonner and I concur: The bureaucratic class of both parties are having us on. We are being had.” – JM

My Response: I agree with you and Bill re the balance of corruption in politics. Especially today.

The issue is interesting. On the one hand, I cannot imagine that everyone that goes into politics is corruptible to the core. Indeed, I do see some of our politicians, past and present, as good people that maintained their integrity. (I’d put Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in that box.) But the nature of politics is about power. To advance one’s cause, no matter what it is, the method is to gain power. And that teaches young politicians that the end must justify the means. (The more committed one is to his/her mission, the more tempting it will be to accept that Machiavellian principle.) Add to this, the pressure in a bicameral legislature, like we have in the US, to be a team player, and the associated punishment if one is not. That, too, is something an up-and-coming politician must learn if he/she is to advance.

So, you have these built-in experiences that have the effect, purposely or not, of eroding personal integrity. And you have the fact that the rewards for playing the game increase as you move up the food chain. Not just the money, but the power. When you consider all that, the near universality of corruption is not just understandable but logical.

If all that were not enough, there is the fact that what legislators are asked to do – write and rewrite laws regulating everything from human behavior to the design and maintenance of nuclear reactors – is way beyond the necessary comprehension of any individual. And you have a recipe for economic, social, and political ideas that are not just idiotic but destructive.