Current mood:	pensive
Current music:	Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet
Entry tags:	economics, philosophy

Corruption
Watching The Constant Gardener tonight got me thinking about how multinationals exploit people in poor countries. Generally they bribe some government officials to turn a blind eye to their activities. That means the problem isn't just due to the corporations trying to boost their bottom line at any cost but due to the corrupt government officials as well. If these officials weren't betraying the public trust by allowing foreign commercial interests to screw over the people whom they are supposed to serve, then most of these problems would not exist. As a corollary, the continued prevalence of such corruption will prevent the suffering people from getting out of their miserable situation, regardless of how much foreign aid is sent to them.

What follows from this is that the problem must be dealt with by one of 2 ways: either the corruption must be quashed or the offending corporations must be taken to task in their home countries. Neither of those options is easy but failing to do at least one will allow the problem to remain unchecked. Throwing relief money at the suffering people will only serve to alleviate the situation slightly on a temporary basis, not to fix the broken system.