That's endemic in government, business, and everywhere else that lacks vigorous full-disclosure and oversight. The Wall Street accounting scandals are self-correcting, as the market will continue to plunge until some bottom-level of confidence is reached. However, government accounting is many times worse, because NO ONE HAS CARED since there is a guarantee for all notes, backed up by nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the dollar's dive shows we're vulnerable to "real" accounting, someday, maybe soon.
The funny part is the claim that it's "morals", when its the current cozy structure that causes the inevitability: Washington no longer represents the people, but simply only "access" by lobbyist-contributors, and buys any needed votes through the sham primary process, and media control. Voters are pawns without any participation other than paying taxes and shutting up.
You can pillory all guilty criminal CEOs in the town square (not a bad idea), but there are hundreds of other loopholes to bribe politicians and abscond legally with tax-free dollars. This will continue until full-disclosure on every dollar and every program in government, with the only exception of bona-fide military secrets, of which there are practically none.
In government's case, when the books get truly audited, it will be an awesome scandal showing debt worth $100k+ for each American household. |
