No Spexx - I was referring to the top 10 wealthiest.

Boehner's Boner

I love it....

Hey merc - did you even read the original post in this thread?
lol

From the beginning. Why?

Cuz you posted the link to the posted link that started the thread.

Because you basically had it hidden, and I posted it without it being hidden and thought it was quite entertaining.

lol - the idea was not to give away their answers...
instead to pick your own - like everyone else was.

I hate them all.... :)

Seriously, though, this is only about the top ten *US* politicians. By global standards, they're pretty lame.

Mubarrak is said to have stolen something like $50 billion, and given lush jobs to his entire extended family. Assad has had thousands of his own citizens killed. Gaddafi has organised mass rapes of dissident populations.

That's corruption.

Your pollies are freakin boy scouts by comparison.

It's like the big furore over MPs expenses over here. Loads of MPs scotched the system, claiming for second homes that weren't really second homes, or for wages for assistants who turned out to be sons and daughters who had never worked for them etc. But much of it involved silly shit like claiming for repairs to houses that they shouldn't have claimed for, or cleaners that they should have paid for themselves. The actual amounts were mostly quite low. Only a handful were involved in large amounts and even those compared to most countries were pitiful.

There are a few who've been sent to gaol for fraud. But the amounts they've defrauded the tax-payer for are pretty low all things considered. LIke £20-30k across 5 years.

Good point.

I agree with you ZenGum and mercy. It's a problem, but a good one to have.

Still, in our own local political ecosystem, local standards apply. Our society, and yours and many others, are built, function at all, because we're a nation of laws. Ironically, it is this very adherence by most that makes the corruption effective.

I see what you mean, it is like Churchill's point that democracy is the worst form of government except for every other form that has been tried.

There are times, though, when we need a strong leader to say something like "screw your campaign contributions, screw your vested interest lobby groups, screw your poll results, screw your marginal electorates and swing states, I'm in charge here and were doing [insert necessary but unpopular move here]!"

Alas, for someone to be able to say that, they'd need to have roughly absolute power, and we have an adage about that, too.

Didn't Jimmy Carter try to do something like that?