U.S. no Longer Part of Top 20 Least Corrupt Nations

For the first time in the index's 15 year history, the United States was removed from Transparency International's Top 20 Least Corrupt Nations. United States' drop in the index (to 7.1 out of 10) was in part due to political funding disputes, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the disclosure of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The Top 20 Least Corrupt Countries include Denmark (1), New Zealand (1), Singapore (1), Finland (4), Sweden (4), Canada (6), Australia (8), Switzerland (8), Iceland (11), Hong Kong (13), Ireland (14), Germany (15), Japan (17), United Kingdom (20). The United States ranked 22nd behind Chile (21).

To see the interactive map click here.

Why We Need WikiLeaks

The Federal Reserve: The Undemocratic Branch of Government

Democracy is More Cumbersome than Dictatorship

Semco went through a radical, democratic transformation beginning in 1980. In 1980, Semco employees "each produced an average of $10,800 worth of goods a year." When Ricardo Semler wrote Maverick in 1993, his employees each produced an average of "$92,000 worth of goods a year (adjusted for inflation)--four times the national average; by the value-added standard, productivity rose six and a half times."

If democratic businesses are more profitable and motivating, then why do people insist on creating oligarchical/command-control organizations? Because...
(1) "so often it is power and greed and plain stubbornness that make bigger automatically seem better."
(2) "secrecy is a strong incentive to be conspicuously greedy."
(3) "bureaucracies are built by and for people who busy themselves proving they are necessary, especially when they are not."

"The era of using people as production tools is coming to an end. Participation is infinitely more complex to practice than conventional corporate unilateralsm, just as democracy is much more cumbersome than dictatorship."

(Quotes taken from Maverick by Ricardo Semler)

Transparency and Limited Power Stop Corruption

"The Church committee (named for Senator Frank Church) looked at a period starting with Franklin Roosevelt and running through Richard Nixon...In every single administration you had failures of control by all the presidents and misconduct by the intelligence agencies...Under all the administrations—six different administrations, both Republican and Democrat—there were misuses of power...(that were) inconsistent with the law and the Constitution.

"The single most important finding of the Church committee was that, if during a time of crisis we ignore the wise restraints that have been put in our constitution and laws to keep us free and keep us strong, we are not only going to make ourselves less free, we are going to make ourselves less safe.

"We’ve slipped as a country into not being as open as we historically (have been) and instead into more and more secrecy, and I think that is one of the underlying root causes (of corruption) that needs to be examined and dealt with." -- Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. (Chief Counsel to the Church Committee)

Bribery is a $1 Trillion Dollar Industry

Daniel Kaufmann, the institute director of Governance at the World Bank, estimates that $1 Trillion of bribes are paid worldwide in both rich and developing countries; One out of every 30 dollars in the world is spent as a bribe.

The World Bank's research "shows that countries which tackle corruption and improve their rule of law can increase their national incomes by as much as four times in the long term, and child mortality can fall as much as 75 percent."

Interestingly enough, the most effective tool to fight corruption has been identified by the World Bank as transparency; ee.gg., freedom of the press, freedom of information, and asset disclosure.

Democratic businesses have found, like the World Bank, that being proactively transparent with all financial information fights corruption, creates efficiency, unity, & understanding, and causes employees to be paid for what they are worth and not for the amount that companies can acquire them for.

Now, if only we could force the World Bank to be transparent...

If you want to help democratize the world, and increase corporate transparency, visit http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm, enter your salary, and browse the salaries of others within your company and around the world.

(Quotation taken from http://web.worldbank.org/external/default/main?theSitePK=84266&contentMDK=64069844&menuPK=116730&pagePK=64148989&piPK=64148984)

No Longer As Strangers on Earth Need We Roam

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."

Gone are the days when controlling a country was as simple as putting up walls. Gone are the days when Washington D.C. exclusively decided foreign policy. Gone are the days when the people of other countries seemed like strangers. Gone are the days when corporations could commit atrocities in other countries without our hearing about it back home.

Here are the days when people all over the world are realizing that we are all appendages of the same body. If we cut an arm, we all bleed. If we cut an eye, we all go blind. Here are the days when the people, through information, are democratizing the world, and not the politicians.

Be part of the movement! Pass the word along! and Merry Christmas!

The People Are Democratizing the World and Not the Politicians