[sudhirj]

Come to think of it, implying that some of our politicians were smart enough to be mafia would be highly insulting to the mafia.

Some are wannabe mafia, though. They're the ones we try to avoid. The others are corrupt, but often their motives are fairly aligned with public interest. For instance, they take cuts on all infrastructure projects, so our infrastructure tends to improve at a fairly good pace - though obviously not as fast as it theoretically could.

[therandomguy]

"so our infrastructure tends to improve at a fairly good pace"... not quiet. The politicians get HUGE kick backs from the contracts. Where does the money come from? By sourcing cheap sub-standard materials. This leads to shit infrastructure with everything crumbling within couple years of construction. I have seen pictures of N. Korea and they seem to have better infrastructure.