THIS ARTICLE IN 10 SECONDS:
- 30% Ukrainians believe corrupt officials deserve to die
- 41% say corruption should be punished with life in prison
- 22% believe that nothing would help to overcome corruption
This article originally appeared at Sputniknews.com
According to a survey carried out in early June, about 30 percent of Ukrainians believe corrupt officials deserve to die, and another 41 percent say corruption should be punished with life in prison.
Around 30 percent of survey respondents in Ukraine believe that corruption should be punished with the death penalty, and 41 percent believe that the offence should carry a life sentence, according to a survey of 600 respondents across all regions of Ukraine between June 8 and 13.
Of the remainder of respondents, 22 percent believe that even such extreme measures would not help to overcome corruption, said Yelena Boyarkina, head of the Ukrainian sociological firm SocioStreamAG, which carried out the research: “Only four percent believe that the current system of combatting corruption gives effective results.”
The death penalty has been outlawed in Ukraine since 2000, after the Verkhovnaya Rada voted to change the country’s penal code.
Despite becoming a member of the Council of Europe in 1995, which requires member states not to apply the death penalty, the last execution was carried out in Ukraine in 1997.
Corruption is difficult to combat, but you can change to a system that is less susceptible to corruption. There are various factors that help or reduce corruption.
1 factor is: centralization of wealth. Corruption is bribery & theft. There is less bribery, if there are fewer extremely wealthy people. Then there just is fewer money available that those with it can use. The second part of that is the State, the bigger the State, the bigger the money they take in with taxation, the easier it is to steal it. Ukraine is enormous, it is an Empire. Power should be devolved to the Oblasts in a big way, and within that where possible to the local areas, just to simplify things. Taxation intake should be as least as possible to the national level, where it is most out of reach of real people.
Factor 2: poverty, and the threat of poverty. If people all have good chances in life (which is impossible in modern society), they fear poverty less, thus they will steal less to feather their nest for when they are old. You need a good generous pension system, and for people to have lots of opportunity to live. That means land: every person *must* own their equal value share of the nation its natural resources (after subtracting public space, housing space, nature space). Mining is a bit difficult to handle this way, but it should be possible. Nature should be thought of in terms of rights: farming rigths, mining rights, hunting rights, etc. A proper free market economy requires everyone just enters the market with what he can do. However you can’t do anything without land, almost. A basic farming right, means you are a free man. Nobody wants to hire you ? Fine, grow your own potatoes (I do too, although not enough to live off it but it’s a good job). This economic independence means you are standing on a platform, from which you can tear down the State if you need to. You become separate and independent, thus the corrupt and evil don’t control you as much. They sure do in the modern system, no matter how people deny it. You want a job, no ? You better … “fit in, boy.”
Factor 3: Economic dictatorship. Why are all companies dictatorships ? Normal people co-operate, discuss together. It’s not always achievable, but should be stimulated. One reason this isn’t occuring, is because investment finance wants one boss above the serfs (labor class), so the boss can suck the rest dry and make them work hard. This must change. Companies should slowly grow based on savings, investment credit should be diminished, if not outlawed.
Factor 4: Lying politicians. This is a big problem, caused by the distance to the one elected. I say we should elect one Delegate per 50 citizens (!). How this system in total would work goes too far to explain here, but its possible. I recommend Ukraine be cut up in between 2 to perhaps 10 nations, but just a cut in two is a good start. I feel there is zero hope that an Empire of the size of Ukraine can be without extreme corruption. Scale it down or nothing would work. Maybe the Sovereignty of Donbass is a first great step toward that end, particularly because its people have shown the will to make their Sovereignty into a success rather then just get pushed into something they don’t want. (Sorry to bable so much, but someone’s got to do it. You don’t think the current world system is going to … be stable, do you. It won’t be stable, instead it will cause World War 3 and in the worst case a return to the stone age. That is how bad it is, proven already by history. What has changed from Weimar Germany ? Nothing much, even the original Roman Republic was similar to what rules today. It needs to be fixed, it is just not good enough.)
P.S. Executing corrupt officials is a false solution. The really corrupt and powerful, will just use it to execute their competitors, and even the few good people who make it to the top. They’ll stash a cabinet of someone who is honest with cash, claim he is corrupt, execute him. This is not a solution, but a sign of desperation. Corruption can only stop if enough people are honest enough, and if you put power low in society and not high. You cannot fight corruption with a corrupt system, it is an absurdity. To have such heavy punishment for corruption, requires that the power to give the judicial verdict is within the people. You can then think about something like an English court system with a jury. Still you should not use execution, it will be abused and once the innocent are dead you can never get them back.