…of an idle mind. For some reason the following thought has been following around my daily round; “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”
This is an age where Harry S Truman’s quote is ever more pertinent. I look at politicians who have never had a proper commercial day job, yet have amassed a hundred times more money than either Mrs S or I after a lifetime of working and investing for a living. Which begs the question; how did they make their money? I know how we did, but what about them?
If it’s from a second job, like running a financial consultancy, fair do’s. If it’s from taking advantage of policy decisions specifically for their own advantage, then that’s not okay. As is having your family benefit from policy decisions. Because that’s effectively ‘insider trading’ which is (allegedly) illegal for anyone not in politics.
If you or I did that sort of thing we’d have the fraud squad kicking down our doors. Yet if a certain breed of politician does it, it becomes a ‘scandal’ but rarely does the perpetrator do time. Unless their theft is so blatant that it triggers a revolution. This is true around the globe.
Like I said. Idle thoughts.
The Bill Sticker Alternative 