You know what I noticed, and it's a sad observation.

[Baitball Blogger]

In this community, cronyism has been institutionalized. The cross-over between the private and public sector is not just blurred, it's non-existent. In the past our city has promoted real estate ventures which have not followed the appropriate public airing, which means a select group within the community were following business ventures that most people in the community didn't even realize had government backing. It didn't help that many of them took leadership positions where they were in the best place to steer their neighbors in the direction that followed the city's agenda, without divulging too much information about the illegitimate ties.

This is what I noticed: Corruption, when it becomes endemic to a community, keeps the people who are part of that crooked network energized and engaged. For some, it keeps them looking young, though many of them are hitting their eighties. You would think that losing peace of mind would eventually sap someone of their strength, but I swear, it's like a youth potion for some.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Why should sociopaths lose peace of mind over their rapacity?

Does the snake agonize over the fate of the gopher it had for lunch?

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Listening from what I heard from an economic development discussion:

The comment was made that the public sector moves more deliberately than the private sector. So, imagine putting the lack of ethics that we are finding in businesses today, with the power of government to move deliberately. That is our problem. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that tapping into the most unethical and greedy people in the community would help advance government programs. Which is why some people are happily advancing financially, basing each new social relationship with what the relationship can provide them in the way of personal advancement, and the rest of us are having our American Dreams steamrolled.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Interesting hypothesis.

Not unlike the Federal Gov't & the likes of KBR, Xe, Booz Allen…

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I know they can pull this off on a local basis,

because that's exactly what they did in the late nineties in my city. The fact that no one lost their jobs over it is testament that it was sanctioned.

I'm afraid that it will become standard practice, if it's not already, unless someone exposes it.

[magical thyme]

5. this, exactly...

Remember when Mittens said it would be unAmerican to pay more in taxes than he needed to. Sociopaths have no sense of other. Their is only their needs, wants and desires. Everything outside of that exists to satisfy their needs, wants and desires.

[1-Old-Man]

6. A life of luxury rarely leaves scars.

[raccoon]

7. Never heard that, but that one's a keeper. nt