@Phil @adamgurri I live in the world. I would love to be able to rely upon people having honor and virtue impervious to pecuniary and other influence, but I have observed human behavior and history and understand that human behavior varies dramatically based on institutions and circumstance, and relying on personal virtue to construct a social, political, or economic system is a fool’s errand. we thrive or die based on institutions and systems. 1/

@Phil @adamgurri Money is power. That is all that it is. Absent government to constrain the monied, it is violent and coercive power. You will have heard the expression “warlord”. That refers to the coincidence of wealth and violent coercion that emerges when states fail. Government is corrupt, and private power is not, only because self-interestedness is the expected nature of private power. Only govt is corruptible because it aspires to, sometimes imperfectly achieves, something better. /fin