The scope and nature of Economic Corruption has changed and is now the major contributor to our socioeconomic and environmental problems. Yet its role remains cleverly hidden from us. It often masquerades as “good business practice” while many other practices remain unobtrusive and unchallenged.

Let's go back and start at the beginning. 

In a democracy, the economy is supposed to serve the needs of the majority. 

When it consistently fails to do so, favouring a tiny minority instead, we can say that the economy has been corrupted. 

Its consistent failure to achieve its objective while consistently serving a tiny minority is proof that it has been corrupted in their favour. 

However, they will claim that the economy has served the majority, and that, therefore, the economy has not been corrupted. 

Well, that’s an easy matter to settle and one that goes to the nub of the problem. 

Who has benefited the most from economic growth over the past four decades? The majority of the rich? 

Statistically, it will be difficult for the rich to worm themselves out of this corner. The facts are - the rich have been the beneficiaries of economic growth by a long shot. The majority, on the other hand, are on a slippery slope going backwards fast. 

Statistics are one thing; the unease the average person feels about their future is the true measure of their concern. To what degree are they worse off than their forefathers? Considerably. Things are not right, and they are getting progressively worse. 

Wages have declined in real terms. Living costs are rising. Job security and employment terms have declined. Government expenditure on support, services, and infrastructure has deteriorated and is now pathetic. Homeownership is a dream when it was a reality in the past. Quality of life for the majority is in free fall. The list of hardships goes on. Clearly, the economy is not working for the majority, but it’s definitely working for the rich. 

So, there is no question about it - our economy has been corrupted. Not by the largest stretch of the imagination can anybody claim majority needs have been served over the past four decades, compared with those of the rich. Neither has the environment fared any better. Environmental issues are of little concern in a world focused on serving the interests of a tiny minority. This blind obsession with serving the rich has also created adverse long-term economic conditions. 

Hence, the premise of this story is that ECONOMIC CORRUPTION is the major cause of our socioeconomic and environmental problems. 

However, before going any further, let’s be clear on the meaning of economic corruption. The current definition is narrowly defined in political and economic discourse as being the misuse of public resources for personal gain by individuals or groups. It typically involves illegal or unethical behaviour. This type of economic corruption is small and inconsequential when compared to the scale and extent of the economic corruption I’m talking about. The new form of economic corruption (while still incorporating the old definition) involves changing the policies, practices, and procedures of all or most economic activities to serve a small segment of society rather than the majority. Majority needs are best served when all primary capitals are served equally (more on this later.) This new form of economic corruption corrupts policies, practices, and procedures to serve only the interest of financial capital (the rich.) This imbalance causes our socioeconomic and environmental problems. 

The size and extent of this new economic corruption is breathtaking. It involves the entire economy, where policies, practices and procedures are deliberately changed to serve financial capital rather than the other three primary capitals - namely Human, Natural and Common capital. 

Let’s be clear, we are talking about corruption, which is a crime. We acknowledged in my introduction that in a democracy, the economy is supposed to serve the majority and that the majority are best served when all primary capitals are served equally. This is based on empirical observations of natural systems. If three out of four primary contributors in a natural system are poorly served, the system will face major change and possible collapse. Our economy is a prime example of an imbalanced system in crisis facing possible collapse. 

Consequently, policies, practices and procedures should be formulated to serve majority needs, not minority interests (i.e., serve all constituents equally.) This ultimately leads to the best long-term outcome for all stakeholders. Implementing or amending policies, practices and procedures intended to serve the needs of the majority by altering them to serve a specific interest group (i.e. corrupting its intended purpose) is a crime. It is as much a crime as me stealing cash from you because that’s the net result - you have suffered a loss. The rich have used their power and influence to distort outcomes in their long-term favour. 

While the size and extent of this new economic corruption are breathtaking, the methods, techniques, and practices used to pull off and sustain this level of corruption are on an equivalent scale. Breathtaking. 

Some of the corruption we will uncover in this story is not seen as illegal but as “good business practice.” For example, good financial management is seen as good business practice, yet this may be achieved at the expense of other primary capitals such as Human, Natural or Common Capital. We have no idea if this is so because we don’t measure or manage these other capitals. Let’s assume they have abused these capitals to achieve good financial results. Good financial results have covered up the abuse of the other primary capitals. So, good financials on their own are no indication of good business management - they are a front for poor resource management. It encourages and supports poor resource management for the benefit of financial capital (in other words, the rich, as they own the financial capital.) 

There are many and varied ways they hide crime in plain sight, which people don’t see as malpractice, and thus don’t challenge. Our inadequate and inappropriate measurement standard is only one example, although an important one. They use every dirty trick and deception to mislead us into believing they are acting in our (majority) interests when they are not. 

For their malpractices to thrive and prosper, it’s critically important for them to have a small government. This means less regulation and oversight, which provides greater scope for malpractice to thrive. That’s why the rich call for smaller governments. They do this under the guise that it reduces the need for higher taxes, which (obviously) benefits them, but the big payoff comes through corrupting the system in their favour. 

Economic corruption, as we used to know it, as straightforward theft, dates back to time immemorial. Its transition to corrupting policies and practices to serve a tiny minority started evolving five decades ago. Political, social, and economic changes at the time led to its progressive growth, propelling it to new heights, or should that be new lows? 

My awareness and thus the start of this story of economic corruption came about when I realised our business measurement standard, which I had been researching, would never be changed, despite it being a primary cause of our socioeconomic and environmental problems.

Three decades ago, I started investigating and researching improved business measurement standards as it was apparent (even then) that our measurement standard was inadequate and inappropriate. It favoured financial capital over the other three primary capitals - People, Natural and Common Capital. By failing to account for these other primary capitals, it’s responsible for causing massive financial bias in our economy. It ignores other important primary capitals. Failing to manage all four primary capitals has contributed hugely to our socioeconomic and environmental problems. 

The problem was widely known, particularly among accountants. Workable solutions such as the one I proposed were available but ignored. 

That’s what confused me all those years ago. Given the seriousness and enormity of the problems and that we had workable solutions, why did we do nothing to implement them? 

In my naivety, I thought we would all be keen to implement the solutions we had. How naive and stupid I was. The owners of financial capital (the rich) aren’t interested in what is right for the majority. They are only interested in what’s right for them. 

If they applied this type of thinking to one aspect of the economy, surely they would apply it everywhere. And so, I started investigating further to test my hypothesis. 

Very quickly, I uncovered the sickening reality. The problems we face are by design. They are a result of them corrupting our systems to work for them rather than the majority. 

This left one big burning question - how big was this problem? I carried on digging further. The hole soon became much deeper and wider than I had ever imagined. The analogy I like to draw here is that it’s like a person, unbeknown to them, standing on an old, covered municipal rubbish dump, trying to find where the smell is coming from. The first hole they dig is dirty and smelly. They dig a little further and realise that they are standing on an old, large rubbish dump. The smell and dirt come from every square inch of the dump - just like our economy. Every part of our economy has been corrupted.

The loss and damage incurred by society, the environment, and our economy over the past four decades is astronomical.

I write about this story of economic corruption, explaining: -

• What methods they use to corrupt the economy.
• What parts of the economy are most seriously affected?
• What policies and practices they use to benefit themselves.
• How they hide what they are doing from us all.
• How they mislead people into believing their actions benefit the majority. 
• How bad these practices are.
• How we reverse their poor policies and practices and return us to a balanced economic strategy.

You may read other articles by Adrian Dore on Medium at

https://medium.com/@adrianmarkdore/