The political govt

What is that? It is a term I have coined for a blur govt. No, not that the govt is blur, but it is blur in the sense that it is not the govt but something like the govt, or the govt but not the govt. Ok, you are all confused by now.

Take Britain as an example. They have things like royalties, dukes and duchess, lords and what not. These are, in a way, political appointments, not the govt but the govt, the ruling elite. Or there could be MPs running a district or constituency that is doing all the necessary works but then someone is appointed as a mayor, presumably to do the same job of the MP, or an honourary political title. These are political appointments that can be done without, of no real relevance to the working of the govt.

The other kind of political govt are the titles or positions awarded to people for political reasons but not because of necessity of work. These are appointments like chairman, directors, advisors, assistant this and that, all because of political connection or patronage. This is the western model of corruption but not branded as such. It is like the current little clip in CNA when one notable was quoted as saying, corruption can be a gift to some and a token of appreciation to another.

What is troublesome about political govt is that it is not just appointments and titles. Somebody got to pay for it. And if the payment to such political appointments are huge and comes from the public coffer, directly or indirectly, it can be serious. It means that the country’s revenue is being used to pay for political appointees in the political govt.

All countries have some form of political govt, big or small. And the people ended up paying for it. No, it is not corruption but a derivative. It is just using public money to pay to people doing something not really necessary, like the dukes or whatever, not because the job or title is necessary but add ons, like badges of honour. Simply it is a political payout from the state’s fund, public money that need not be. In monarchies, it is a parasitic scheme that sucks away money from the state for the royal families, and the amount can be a strain on the country unless there is oil money coming out from the ground.

In modern nation states, republics and democracies, such payouts are getting more prevalent under different guises. No wonder many democracies in Europe are going bankrupt and the people did not know where the state money goes to. It is convenient to just blame it on the welfare system. But without lifting the blinkers, they would not know how big is the political govt and the political payouts. They would not know that there is a horde of dependents happily being paid enormous sums of money by the people without the people having any clue to it.

The people in the countries of PIGS are thinking that they were the ones bleeding the countries through welfare schemes. They did not know of the bigger schemes that their elite are parties to, and taking much more than them. And the elite will never admit that they are in the take, taking money from the public coffer.