[kylebyproxy]

> as soon as you end up having an institution with the power to do something for a large number of people, you'll have power and corruption

Honest question: What would lead you to this conclusion?

I hear this sentiment often, but I've never understood how anyone could think so little of other people and (evidently) themselves.

It sounds like you're saying you can't even trust yourself to resist corruption in a position of power, which strikes me as pure cynicism.

Moreover, you seem to have made the assumption that factoring corruption out of government at a structural level is impossible. If that's the case, I think you're being unimaginative.

[AnthonyMouse]

> Honest question: What would lead you to this conclusion?

A person's incentive to pay attention to something is proportional to their ability to do something about it. If you have an organization meant to represent hundreds of millions of people, each individual has effectively ~zero control over it, and so pays little attention.

Meanwhile, the larger the organization it is, the more resources it can extract from its base, the larger it can become. With size comes complexity. Complexity means there are more things for people to pay attention to.

In combination the little attention people pay is spread thin over a large number of things. This makes corruption unlikely to be noticed and punished, which attracts corrupt people.

> Moreover, you seem to have made the assumption that factoring corruption out of government at a structural level is impossible. If that's the case, I think you're being unimaginative.

Which existing large government is free of corruption?

Note that states with lower corruption scores like Denmark and Singapore are less than 5% of the size of the United States and have less corruption, not none.

[IG_Semmelweiss]

>>>> as soon as you end up having an institution with the power to do something for a large number of people, you'll have power and corruption Honest question: What would lead you to this conclusion?

Honest answer : With respect, because that's real-life works. Look around you. A senatorial campaigns will always amass millions in campaign contributions. The local comptroller candidate will be lucky to raise 100K. The more people are impacted by a single individual, the more power that single individual has. The more power is as stake, the more corrupt attempts to usurp that power.

>>>>It sounds like you're saying you can't even trust yourself to resist corruption in a position of power,

No. It means that money will color all your decisions and edge cases will tend to resolve in a particular way because a decision favored by your moneyed supporters will be easier to justify.

Take for example a doctor treating a heart attack patients with prior has cold-like symptoms . The doctor is marking the cause of death. The doctor has seen many doctors get laid off due to pandemic. Waiting rooms are overcrowded with patients dying due to lack of doctors & COVID. There's no money coming in - the state has suspended the traditional hospital cash cow: elective surgery. The hospital medical director looks like a ghost, and has been urging staff to not forget to label patients with COVID-like symptoms as COVID-positive, to obtain government fund support.

The doctor is sure the patient didn't die of COVID. The doctor is not even sure the patient had COVID. But there's no time to check. There are no tests, ICU is packed, and he's worried about other patients needing medical attention, plus the doctor knows his assessment could be wrong. So he puts down cause of death: COVID.

Is the doctor corrupt ? No. The doctor is human.

So are politicians. (particularly unvirtuous humans at that, unlike doctors)