(no subject)
From the article I just linked, the original poster says,[An honest, well meaning, former-schoolteacher-or-real-estate-broker-turned city councilman] can't overcome the knowledge gap. Nobody can, with all the stuff you have to buy these days. All they can do is to admit their stupidity, to hire or defer to smarter people, and to keep contracts simple and understandable.
To their advantage, the flim-flam man is usually spottable from a mile away. If you're the kind of person who turns down the trip Florida, who actually reads the proposals and who expects to understand them as written, then you'll be pretty hard to fool.
You can't con an honest man. And an honest man will pick the best price out of the quotes that make sense and that he can understand. The schemer will try to outsmart things by finagling the edges: this applies to both buyer and seller. Let the con men devour each other and look for the honest people to do business with.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/c84bp/how_realworld_corruption_works/c0qruxb
The national government has a legion of consultants specifically employed to handle the analysis of potential policy directions so that it's hard to fool. The city level doesn't have these kinds of resources... what they do have is the ability to go to extremely transparent lengths and make it possible for any citizen to criticize proposals. Welcome to the Internet!
To their advantage, the flim-flam man is usually spottable from a mile away. If you're the kind of person who turns down the trip Florida, who actually reads the proposals and who expects to understand them as written, then you'll be pretty hard to fool.
You can't con an honest man. And an honest man will pick the best price out of the quotes that make sense and that he can understand. The schemer will try to outsmart things by finagling the edges: this applies to both buyer and seller. Let the con men devour each other and look for the honest people to do business with.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/c84bp/how_realworld_corruption_works/c0qruxb
The national government has a legion of consultants specifically employed to handle the analysis of potential policy directions so that it's hard to fool. The city level doesn't have these kinds of resources... what they do have is the ability to go to extremely transparent lengths and make it possible for any citizen to criticize proposals. Welcome to the Internet!