The Soviet Union fell because it was so corrupt it could not correct itself. Top down management of the entire society and economy could not function if the numbers reported up the food chain were lies. The Poles said, "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." When the last five-year plan failed, a new five-year fairytale was fashioned.
We in the United States are facing corruption from many sides. In your face crony capitalism practiced so blatantly by Obama but also by Republican leadership will gradually bleed the economy. As one poster has already pointed out, wholesale importation of people from a culture which is corrupt means they bring those values, or lack of values, with them along with the criminals and rapists. The government is cooking the books producing false economic data reminiscent of the Soviet Union when it claims 5.3% unemployment with 90 million people off the rolls. The entire pay for play modus vivendi in Washington will soon drive the economy down well behind China. The system of intensive regulation relieved by donations from well-heeled lobbyists is lethal for a free economy. If the Greeks had a tax system which invited cheating, our tax code is simply designed to make Congressman necessary to relieve the people of the very impositions they levy upon them. Obama phones are but a symptom of a system of entitlements which disassociates acquisition of wealth from accomplishment. The list goes on and on
One other very serious factor which we must consider in contemplating corruption is the utterly failed war on drugs. It corrupts our entire society. It generates a contempt for law and a contempt for law enforcement. It results in cynicism which creates an atmosphere in which only a fool aspires to be law abiding. It undermines respect for law and respect for the rule of law to replace it with cynicism. It corrupts the legal system from the cop on the beat to judges. It contorts our international treaties. It fails in almost everything except undermining those values that used to distinguish us from Greece.
