So what else is new?

Reader comment on: Big Government Breeds Corruption

Submitted by Lyle (United States), Mar 27, 2014 16:58

Would you call NYC in the 1850s big government, back then you had to pay Tammany Hall to get anything done. Or in other big cities of the time you paid the local machine off. Definitely in the case of Liquor licenses it has been this way in NYC since at least the British left in 1783 (In fact the 1751 Gin act that required sales only to licesed premises and put pubs under the control of local magistrates) On transit see Yerkes and the NYC transit. He had to pay the NYC machine at the time for the rights to build. Before 1751 in the England you had to belong to the pub owners guild to run a pub). So nothing new here, it has always been this way. (except where government did not really exist i.e. areas just beginning to settle in the US for example. Once a settled government was in place then regulations existed and the chance for an office holder to make a buck was there. In addition recall that the New York State Legislature had members introduced what were called fetcher bills in the last half of the 19th century, the bills required the NYC to do something it did not want to do and would disappear when the legislator got paid by the NYC.

So corruption is as american as apply pie, and has been around since before the revolution. Edison had to pay the NYC government (and likely city councilors) to put in the first electric system in Manhattan also.

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