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A comment on Anti-social Punishment. Parent comment

Re:Anti-social Punishment by pjc50 on Thursday October 11, 2018 @01:55PM (#18195635)
Trust is like a rainforest: a resource that takes years to build up and provides benefit to the world, but can be looted for profit - once.

Ultimately the question is "why don't I just wire the contents of the treasury to my bank account, bribing my cronies in the ruling party along the way?" People routinely get away with massive theft from the state in less developed countries, but they rely on being able to move the wealth to somewhere more stable so they can keep it.

Most immediately is the question "why don't I just de-register all the opposition voters?" ...

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Re:Anti-social Punishment by hannasanarion on Thursday October 11, 2018 @03:52PM (#18196523)
> People routinely get away with massive theft from the state in less developed countries, but they rely on being able to move the wealth to somewhere more stable so they can keep it.

For those not super tuned-in to international politics, Putin's regime in Russia thrives on exactly the type of behavior, and the Maginitsky Acts passed by the US and several other countries are designed to fetter the kleptocracy by taking away the safe places to keep stolen cash.

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