|
I could probably be bribed with a comprehensive family health insurance plan, with no deductibles and low co-pays. Just putting that out there. A simple cash bribe is a nice gesture, obviously, but really, you'd just be bribing my spouse or my kids. That's why I don't like getting cash or gift cards as birthday gifts. I appreciate the thought, but you know that's just going to get spent on electricity for the house, or a replacement AC compressor, or a tank of gas. A good gift is something that person, specifically, would want, but probably couldn't justify slipping it into the family budget. So yeah, bribing me with the same kind of health plan that I got a taste of once, and then never saw again, would be so much more effective than a briefcase full of cash. A defined-benefit retirement plan might work, too. But that works both ways. If my [loyal] employer were to bribe me in that fashion, I'd be nigh-unflippable. ...unless the ethics reporting hotline was useless and career suicide, I guess. So I wouldn't say the systemic failure is in not recognizing warning signs and raising red flags. It's because so many decent people just don't want to work for certain parts of the government any more. That leads to lowered standards, just to meet staffing requirements. And then everyone has to get "insider threat" briefings all the time. Decent people want decent job conditions, including pay commensurate with the private sector, and benefits sufficient to raise 2.1 kids in a solidly middle-class lifestyle. Sane people don't want to work for paranoid employers. Stable people don't want to worry about going bankrupt from a medical emergency. Reliable people want to be able to plan out career and retirement. And above all, honorable people don't want to turn on their own neighbors. |