[lutherquick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060708/ap_ ... ol_bribery

Be it mobster or mafia like corruption or as this article, corruption in the US will probably be directly proportional to the price of energy.

Corporate corruption in America will rise, government corruption will rise, violence and theft will rise, but more so, as much of the corruption is normally covered up in an economy of cheap oil. Generally, prosperity (cheap oil) tends to make much of the corruption "acceptable". Sentencing, and fines tend to be lower by a legal system when the land is an oasis of plenty. But the public will demand compensation as oil goes up and as life becomes tougher... tougher rules and tougher penalties. As US hegemony wanes, people must blame someone. The US is already far more corrupt than any other nation, but the "tolerance" bar was raised as hegemony subsidized the system. Take a $200,000 bribe in the US and you get a slap on the wrist. Do it in China, and you go to jail.

Let us see how many people demand that "BAR" be lowered as Americans can't pay the heating bills. And let us see how many more join and become corrupt, hoping not to be caught. Then I start think about Michael Milken, or Kenneth Lay, George W. Bush, Bernie Ebbers, or Dennis Kozlowski... damn ! if the ponzi scheme could "just" go only another quarter or till the next CEO takes over... woe are the corrupted, interrupted by - peak oil...

tisk, tisk...

[Kylon]

Lutherquick, I think your underestimating the power that evil people have in this country.

They aren't going to blame the CEOs or the politicians.

They are going to blame the Gays, and flag burning, and all that, and when someones head does have to roll, it's going to be a political enemy.

You don't understand how sheeple the people are in the United States.