# The amount of rot and corruption in this world is making me despair **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 23, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513 "2026-04-23T13:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/21 "2026-04-23T18:07:58Z")
The original “prediction” in prediction markets was an attempt to predict the future, and insider betting was a feature, not a bug. So the “wisdom of the crowd” also included that some of the crowd might have secret knowledge. Now that prediction markets are just another form of gambling, those with insider information have a distinct advantage. The goal of a fair prediction market should be to allow those with insider information to play, but also to limit the ability of insiders to cause outcomes. Betting that Jake Sportsball will score less than 12 points in the first half breaks when you accept that bet from Jake himself. The only way I can think of to handle it for some of this other stuff is to refuse last minute bets. If you see large bets that oil prices will skyrocket in 6 weeks, then that is a big clue that something might happen. When those bets are for 24 hours, there isn’t much time to do anything. > [@Alessan](#): > > where’s the money coming from? There is an opposite side to the bet. How much the winner gets is determined by the split. So something like for every dollar bet $0.90 saying Maduro will remain in power and $0.10 saying he will be out of power by the end of the week determines how much the winners get. > [@Alessan](#): > > So it’s rich people stealing from other rich people. Of course, same answer as “why do you rob banks?” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/22 "2026-04-23T18:27:09Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > ETA..ok I looked it up and in certain context US is not so young. > I pull that back and apologize for not “getting” it. It’s okay; it’s something I think most people are unaware of. For example, they look at Germany and see that there has been some equivalent since the 1st century BC (named “Germania” by the Romans). And you think… Wow, they’ve been around for thousands of years. But that’s assuming that the modern nation of Germany is the same as the divided East and West Germany, which is the same as the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, which is the same as the German Confederation and Empire, which is the same as the Kingdom of Germany… And so on. When you look at history, most nations on the planet resemble a storefront building that has been around for a long time, but has been occupied by different businesses one after another. There is always something in that building, that building’s address doesn’t change, but you can’t point at it and say that store has been around for that entire time. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/23 "2026-04-23T18:40:33Z")
The whole thing just seems like a self-correcting problem to me. When gamblers learn the game is fixed, they stop playing. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/24 "2026-04-23T19:03:50Z")
It’s not just the betting markets, of course: supreme court justices vacation with oligarchs and openly take bribes including vacations, vehicles and cash; one of the spouses of a justice has a “consulting” business selling access to the Court. Trump shills his various schemes including crypto currency; and Jared is making billions as an advisor to countries hoping to curry favor with the president. America is really just the world’s largest banana republic. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/25 "2026-04-23T19:30:54Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > So it’s rich people stealing from other rich people. > > I get it, though. It’s not about the money, it’s that leaders are making policy decisions that serve themselves rather than their country. That’s the real crime here. I think this is a fair characterization. > [@Alessan](#): > > The whole thing just seems like a self-correcting problem to me. When gamblers learn the game is fixed, they stop playing. 1. Heh. Human nature what it is, gamblers will gamble anyway. Plenty of people have bet on rigged horse races; billions are spent in casinos where the house always wins. 2. There are important distinctions between the bond market, the stock market, commodities markets, and prediction markets. The last one does not currently affect real world economic decisions such as whether to build a new factory, drill a new oil well, or adjust your inventories. The earlier ones do. The SEC was set up to regulate financial markets which have real world effects on the economy. The thinking was that, yes, rigged games discourage small investors. The SEC never regulated Las Vegas, because that’s different. Over the past year, prediction markets have moved into sports betting, so yes the line has gotten blurry. I strongly suspect that Trumpist insider trading doesn’t affect financial markets sufficiently to have people pull out of them. When it occurs in the stock and bond markets though, the victim pool widens to include the middle class. I doubt whether the same could be said for 15 minute war profiteering in the oil futures market. * * * Regarding the OP, corruption, nepotism, and economic growth so slow it’s not perceptible in a human lifetime is the normal state of affairs. That changed after 1870. That still exists in some places in the world. Trumpism is a reversion to the norm, the norm being tyranny, influence peddling, and dismal economic opportunity for those not politically connected. **This is why we fight.** ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/26 "2026-04-23T19:36:25Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Heh. Human nature what it is, gamblers will gamble anyway. Plenty of people have bet on rigged horse races; billions are spent in casinos where the house always wins. A disturbingly large percentage of people who gamble do so in a financially dangerous manner. > **[National Council on Problem Gambling Survey Shows Drop in Problem Gambling...](https://www.ncpgambling.org/news/national-council-on-problem-gambling-survey-shows-drop-in-problem-gambling-risk-highlights-ongoing-challenges/)** > > NCPG urges more federal action as nearly 20 million U.S. adults report problem gambling behaviors. WASHINGTON, D.C. – A national survey released today by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) finds the spike in risky gambling behavior... So yes, there are going to be a lot of people who do it anyway. If you’re going to rely on gamblers making wise decisions, you are making a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/27 "2026-04-23T19:40:48Z")
Again, it’s not the gambling. It’s the open corruption. The Border Czar was caught on tape accepting a $50k bribe and was never prosecuted. Trump allowed Elon Musk to dismantle the federal agencies investigating him. The list goes on and on. Focusing on the gambling is like focusing on the paint on the Titanic’s lifeboats. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/28 "2026-04-23T19:49:43Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It’s not just the betting markets, of course: supreme court justices vacation with oligarchs and openly take bribes including vacations, vehicles and cash; one of the spouses of a justice has a “consulting” business selling access to the Court. Trump shills his various schemes including crypto currency; and Jared is making billions as an advisor to countries hoping to curry favor with the president. America is really just the world’s largest banana republic. The US is sliding into middle income country status, a situation with repressed economic growth and opportunity. But there is a lot of ruin in a nation. Most of the world’s population lives under more corrupt governance than the US. China. India. Pakistan. Indonesia. Nigeria. Russia. These countries are far more corrupt that the US. [Cite](https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/29 "2026-04-23T19:51:14Z")
The problem is that there is nobody to hold them accountable except for the voters. The DOJ won’t go after anyone as long as they’re doing whatever Trump wants. Congress won’t raise a stink as long as Republicans control both houses. SCOTUS won’t do much of anything with a 6-3 conservative majority. You can’t have change until Congress changes hands, which might very well happen next year, and even then you just have the corruption slowed down at best until Trump is out of there. And then if you get a Democrat in the White House, it’s going to take many years before SCOTUS gets anyone who actually cares about law or jurisprudence over what the Heritage Foundation or rich right-wing donors are dictating. And even then, we have a very vulnerable system and I don’t know what can be effectively done about it to prevent another situation like we have now. Probably nothing aside from a massive change that people don’t have the stomach for. I’m not hopeful that things will be anything close to good in my lifetime, the best I can hope for is “not as bad”. (Personally, I’d love to see a parliamentary system where you have governments being formed and multiple groups forming alliances, as we see in many modern nations with newer systems of government today.) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/30 "2026-04-23T20:01:02Z")
did I say there weren’t other corrupt shitholes? America is just the largest. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/31 "2026-04-23T20:07:54Z")
McConnell has shown the Republican SCOTUS strategy. As long as Republicans control the senate, there will be no Democratic nominees that get through. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/32 "2026-04-23T21:47:29Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Again, it’s not the gambling. It’s the open corruption. The Border Czar was caught on tape accepting a $50k bribe and was never prosecuted. Trump gave Bondi a 25k campaign contribution and somehow her investigation into the fradulent Trump university went away. Funny that. Instead he gave her a cabinet position. She did’nt cover up the Epstein files well enough and was sent on her way. An so Trump started a war to distract everyone. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/33 "2026-04-23T21:58:33Z")
What makes America so repellent is that a lot of our corruption is legal, campaign donations, gifts to Supreme Court justices, all out in the open. Just a dystopian shithole of a country. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/34 "2026-04-23T22:02:36Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > What makes America so repellent is that a lot of our corruption is legal, campaign donations, gifts to Supreme Court justices, all out in the open. Agreed, it is a massive problem. You know it’s bad when they don’t even try to hide it (because they don’t need to; it’s legal as you say). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/35 "2026-04-23T22:17:36Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Not to be a doom-and-gloomer… but “the world has never been less corrupt than it is today” is a flip-side Pollyanna-ish view of current events that minimizes any elements that separate this moment from other moments (and, while granted that this is not GD, is a questionable statement to make without cites and methods of evaluation). > > Was it possible for any one of dozens (hundreds) of political insiders to be able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars at any given moment by betting with American citizens on the outcomes of violent wars that those insiders had foreknowledge of, and/or were in the position to set into motion? With as little “covert” effort as logging into a website and placing a bet? > > Yes, perspective is important. Yes, the pendulum is always swinging. But, the individuals who tend toward corruption, graft, and greed have been able to feed those desires more easily, and with broader impacts and consequences on more people than ever before, and it’s appropriate to lament that. Meh. The world only seems scarier now than in the past because we know how the past turned out! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/36 "2026-04-23T22:17:53Z")
Right, I’ve been saying this for a while. China claims to be ancient, but they date back to 1949. There was another nation called China before that, but it wasn’t the same nation. The United Kingdom you can take back to, at the oldest, 1658 (you could also point to the decline in power of the monarch, but that’s difficult to pin a date on). And most other nations have similar discontinuities. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/37 "2026-04-23T22:40:52Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > One account. I cannot stop thinking about this account. It was called “Burdensome-Mix.” It was created in December. On January 2nd, it placed $32,500 on Venezuela’s president being removed from power. On January 3rd, Maduro was seized by U.S. special forces. Burdensome-Mix collected $436,000. Then it changed its username. Then it disappeared." Turns out this wasn’t a rich insider. It was a schlub low-tier enlisted insider. > **[US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on Maduro...](https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/23/politics/us-special-forces-soldier-arrested-maduro-raid-trade)** > > A US special forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested for allegedly betting on that operation, netting him $400,000 in profits, according to a person familiar with the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/38 "2026-04-23T22:51:16Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > did I say there weren’t other corrupt shitholes? America is just the largest. In terms of population China and India are larger. [In terms of output, China is the largest.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)) At prevailing exchange rates, the US is the largest. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/39 "2026-04-23T23:44:28Z")
In other news, special services soldier is arrested for making a cool $400,000+ on Polymarket betting on Maduro’s ouster. > Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud. That’s the way things are suppose to work. Bad people do bad things, then are arrested. > **[Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social)](https://bsky.app/profile/joshtpm.bsky.social/post/3mk73bdzrrk2n)** > > Exactly. People see all the corruption and assume there are no rules. They don’t know there’s only immunity for Trump family members and top allies. > > \[contains quote post or other embedded content\] Which is what separates the US from India, China et al. Trump has made something like [4 billion dollars](https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/trumps-profiteering-hits-four-billion-dollars) during his Presidency. But he doesn’t like it when _other_ less favored people put their snouts to the trough. And if he doesn’t know you, you are a nonperson. So we are not yet China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, where corruption is endemic to all levels of society. What is the way forward? Fight fire with fire as the heroes of Virginia just did. > Democrats had a choice. They could express effete outrage and a meaningless devotion to broken norms and principles and agree to wage elections on a permanently tilted plane. Or they could decide to play by the rules Republicans had forced on everyone. They did just that and it was unquestionable the right decision by every measure. It really never seemed to occur to Trump Republicans that Democrats would fight on the playbook Republicans created. There’s a special comedy to this because anyone familiar with the facts on the ground knew that Republicans had already used gerrymandering much more aggressively than Democrats. So there was much more juice in the gerrymandering lemon for Democrats if and when they decided to employ tactics Republicans have been using for more than a decade. It’s worth Democrats considering how deeply Republicans had internalized the belief that Democrats would simply never respond in kind. You could play by other rules, but that would be wrong. Because that would enable bad behavior. Gifted: [https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-backchannel/fafo-and-other-things-we-learned-in-the-2025-26-redistricting-wars/sharetoken/b00ad975-d805-47ca-b2da-593480c0faa0](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-backchannel/fafo-and-other-things-we-learned-in-the-2025-26-redistricting-wars/sharetoken/b00ad975-d805-47ca-b2da-593480c0faa0) But these sort of pro-gerrymandering rules could only be put in place due to corrupt Supreme Court decisions. And to reestablish civic democracy, we need a functional legislative branch, which means doing away with the filibuster. So those are the working requirements for Democratic politicians. - Filibuster reform - Supreme Court reform This is our fight. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513/40 "2026-04-23T23:59:48Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > In terms of population China and India are larger. [In terms of output, China is the largest.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)) At prevailing exchange rates, the US is the largest. We have the largest military and the largest nuclear arsenal. We are the largest corrupt shithole in history. We also get bonus points for being Santi onions war mongers who pretend we care about things like democracy and human rights. Just a shithole all the way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amount-of-rot-and-corruption-in-this-world-is-making-me-despair/1029513.md?page=3)