The alternative to mafia capitalism in the grips of what Trading/Finance/Crypto Twitter calls `#CrimeSeason` is markets refereed by competent, diligent, uncorrupted professionals and public servants: my go-to example is Brooksley Born because that's just such a turning point in history moment, but lots of people in important jobs want to do their jobs well, in general cops want to catch criminals, in general people don't like crime season.
But sometimes important decisions get made badly (fuck Brooksley Born, deregulate everything! This Putin fellow seems like a really hard worker and a strong traditional man.) based on lies motivated by greed and if your society gets lazy about demanding high-integrity behavior from the people it admits to leadership positions and punishing failures in integrity with demotions from leadership, then this can really snowball on you.
Just like the life of an individual can go from groovy one day to a real crisis with just the right amount of unlucky, bit of bad cards, bit of bad choices, bit of bad weather, same thing happens to societies. Your institutions start to fail, people start to realize that cheating is the new normal, and away you go. Right now we're reaping what was sowed in the 1980s, Gordon Gecko and yuppies would love 2025 (I'd like to think Reagan would feel a bit queasy about how it all went but who knows).
Demand high-integrity behavior from leaders. It's not guaranteed to work at this stage of the proceedings, but it's the only thing that has ever worked.
But sometimes important decisions get made badly (fuck Brooksley Born, deregulate everything! This Putin fellow seems like a really hard worker and a strong traditional man.) based on lies motivated by greed and if your society gets lazy about demanding high-integrity behavior from the people it admits to leadership positions and punishing failures in integrity with demotions from leadership, then this can really snowball on you.
Just like the life of an individual can go from groovy one day to a real crisis with just the right amount of unlucky, bit of bad cards, bit of bad choices, bit of bad weather, same thing happens to societies. Your institutions start to fail, people start to realize that cheating is the new normal, and away you go. Right now we're reaping what was sowed in the 1980s, Gordon Gecko and yuppies would love 2025 (I'd like to think Reagan would feel a bit queasy about how it all went but who knows).
Demand high-integrity behavior from leaders. It's not guaranteed to work at this stage of the proceedings, but it's the only thing that has ever worked.