The Pros And Cons Of Corruption

“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State

Political corruption is a major problem in the US today. It involves almost all levels of government and affects people from all walks of life. Public office is a noble post and citizens put their trust in government officials to carry out their constitutional duties for the benefit of the citizenry. The problem comes in where both elected and unelected officials perform their duties with the goal of personal gain in full view of the law. The ethical and moral wrongs of corruption are unjustifiable in any context.

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

In the case of money, it is corruption. Some would argue that money is the root of all problems, and that there is no instance where money doesn’t cause corruption. This threat is constant in the media today: the election, the celebrities, the news. These and many more are considered corrupted by a source of great wealth, being that the cantaditas pay for votes, the celebrities are paid for their acting in the media, and the news stations are paid by different political parties to represent them in broadcasts. Sadly, as this does occur, many people are represented for their money and not for their talent due to the overvaluing of money in America. It is most definitely true that corruption does occur as a result of money, but not to a complete extent. While these instances do occur in today’s world, there is reform in action as well as the fact that not all Americans are led towards this path of deception. It is true that many people are drawn towards money when it comes to picking a leader or immersing oneself in the media, there are many cases of Americans going towards those who exemplify ideals similar to their own over those who have larger supplies of wealth. This paves the way to the realization that not all Americans overvalue

The Progress movement or as many refer to as the Progressive era, was a time frame where Americans joined in varying groups to advocate reform across the United States. To elaborate, Progressives believed in widespread change for child labor, industrialization, government, racial reform, and women’s rights. Countless stories of corruption in these areas were brought to light in the Progressive era mostly due to the published writings of Muckrakers. Muckrakers, were journalists who wrote for popular magazines that attempted to expose corrupt political activities from their investigative journalism. Furthermore, I will discuss and compare these groups and their attempts for changes in the rights of child labor, women, acknowledgment of corrupt government practices, racial relations, and industrialization reform.

Corruption has no place in our government, period. The American people have a right to hold their elected officials to high ethical standards, and when their elected officials fail to meet such standards, the people have a responsibility to hold them accountable. In addition to standing for election every two years, Congress has ethics committee procedures it can utilize to censure or otherwise reprimand members who violate the rules. Members of Congress have to abide by the same laws as everyone else, and when laws are broken, they should be held accountable.

All the while there is corruption caused within industrial society by the corporate dominance of politics, those are the people that were left to suffer the harsh treatment of chasing after wealth. Winners and losers were prevalent within the economy, society as well as politics in America as a result of The Gilded Age.

Corruption can come from many different people. When the same group of people are always in government it becomes a situation where this group of people runs government. And when someone wants to be elected they might do whatever the group of people wants to be in there favor. The Federalist paper number 68 it says “He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessarily to the duration of his official consequence” (Hamilton). There are also people from foreign countries that want to be the leader of America just for the benefit of their home country. They

Corruption is when the Government is bribed by interest groups or corporations so that the bribers’ interests are put forward before the interest of the people. During the Gilded Age corruption in the senate was rampant. According to the political cartoon “The bosses of Senate”- (Progress and Poverty, 324), the corporations were the real entities behind running the Senate. The Senate, as the cartoon shows, is acting only in the interests of the different monopolies that are bribing the senate. However, this does not neccesarily mean that the Government cannot act in the intersts of its own people.

One major point that there is corruption in the United States Government is all the scandals that have occurred in the past. One of the most known is the Watergate Scandal. This occurred during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Nixon was drove from office before he could be impeached for obstruction justice.(Grossman) ”Although no one in power profited financially from the matter, Watergate nonetheless is perhaps the most egregious example of political corruption because of the effect it had in subverting the political process.” “Responding to a request from

American government corruption is no doubt on the rise and big businesses love to take advantage of that. Many companies will look to ‘pay off’ or support a politician in their election in order to get their vote in the passing of bills or other things that may benefit their company and gain power over the government. For example, Tom Cobett, the “fracking-friendly former pennsylvania governor,” as called by Jon Schwarz from The Intercept, accepted around $1.7 million from oil and natural gas companies and he proceeded to pass or support several issues that helped those companies.

Government corruption has been going on for too long and only got worse when President Obama walked into office. The people haven’t seen freedom in this country for a long time. We have been lied to many times and the people have been brainwashed by false information by the media. America has increased in corruption, the email scandal with Hillary Clinton, and Obama wanting to pardon Hillary.

As all thing yes, and no. Are there people in the USA with strong moral values that are unable to be seduced by money or other vices, yes. But most people lack that form of conviction, they focus on the moment or the short term. And weak moral values lead to all things sinful like corruption. Public figures being bit out, presidents listening to shady corporations they helped them obtain office. All thing that happen and will continues to happen. Inability to accept this basic truth would mean that person is ignorant. These types of people are whom make are laws and choose how much we pay for taxes. Is society corrupt? In short yes, but let me oppose this question back, who is to blames the politics? Social media? Murky businesses? The majority of the blame belongs to us, the society. We stand by silent as government official participate in scandal after scandal. We continually turn a blind eye and hope for things to become better even though we have taken no action what so ever. We the people have the ultimate power and I say it's are fault. Society is corrupt because we want it be corrupt and that's the way each and everyone of us grew up

Ahmad N. (2002). Corruption and Government Regulations : An Empirical Analysis. The Bangladesh Development Studies , Vol. 28, No. 4 pp. 29-51.

Political corruption is parasitic; it finds a host, and can almost always find a way to survive. Eventually, people grow dependent on this corruption as a means for income, thus forming a symbiosis between the people who benefit from it, and the elites that regulate it. People sometimes ignore the corruption surrounding them, feeling that as long as the politicians do their jobs well, their ‘extra salary’ can’t hurt (BNS).