"The Captured State" should enter the common lexicon! The State has been captured by a double-act of bureaucracies and billionaires. Politicians and public servants benefit from their abilities to set their own rewards and then benefit again as they are rewarded after their service by hugely lucrative private sector salaries -despite having no previous marketable skills in the industries where they settle. The industries and owners benefit in having laws written that accord with their interests, incredibly light or no regulation and virtually no meaningful taxation of their profits. Only the citizens are cut out of this mutually beneficial relationship.

Perhaps the greatest example of this was the recent crisis in Ireland where a huge bet was lost by banks, property developers and public servants. The citizens who had no part in this bet were saddled with the total debt while the developers were rewarded with lucrative contracts, the public servants with opulent pensions and the banks with blank checks drawn on the public purse. A huge fraud where only the victims were punished!