About Subsidies, Corruption and You

There is corruption everywhere. One of the things history teaches us is that corruption in a state cannot be completely eliminated.

But what we can hope to happen is the graduation from low quality corruption to high quality ones.

Subsidies create low quality corruption (See my piece titled Dangote Is Not Your Friend (1)). That's why the most celebrated businessmen here rely on the government for subsidies and special tax rebates.

A Journey Across the Oceans…

Look up the 1MDB multi billion dollar scandal in Malaysia (2) and be amazed. It is considered one of the world's biggest financial frauds. The case is still unraveling. It has led to investigations in at least half a dozen countries, and led to what Loretta Lynch, former US attorney general, refers to as "the largest kleptocracy case" in US history (3). Malaysia has a gdp per capita (PPP) of $34,567 (4). Nigeria has 6,172.

In Japan, before Abe announced his resignation (5), he was facing backlash culminating in an approval rating of 36% as at July 2020 due to the perceived corruption in his cabinet. His former Justice Minister paid a sum of $280,000 in cash to 94 political leaders in exchange for their efforts to secure votes for his wife's electoral campaign (6). Another $1.4bn transfer for electoral campaigns backed by his Chief Cabinet Secretary…