More often than not these scandals have to do with ensuring a political advantage, securing an electorate, that kind of thing, or so it seems.
But I suppose the "low" salaries that politicians get could be seen as an incentive to get richer by other means.
Swedish parliamentarians earn €4000 per month and ministers earn €8000. At least the minister's pay is mega-rich in my book. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Let me just translate that into, oh, I see, over one million French francs per year, ok yep, you're right, they're mega-rich.
You're kidding, right? A family of four earning 8,000 Euros per month, pre tax, is right on the borderline of qualifying for apartments specially reserved for moderate income families here in NYC or its inner suburbs, i.e at roughly 120% of the median. Housing and taxes are that much lower low in Sweden?
And remember the ministers spouse will also have a wage to add to the household income. But even if the spouse is unemployed it equals two working parents earning €4000 each, two great wages in their own right.
I don't know what rents are in NYC, but if you earn more than about €3000 your income tax is about 50 % in Sweden. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
If I am not mistaken, Sweden's top/bottom quintile ratio is around 4, one of the lowest in the developed world. Ministers getting four times average wage will earn shrugs elsewhere. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Sweden has the worst educated government in the world. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
In the UK I'd consider middle class starts at around £30k/year, upper middle at around £80-£100k/year, and rich at £1M/year. MPs here get paid £50k (it may have gone up since the last time I looked) plus some expenses.
Very rich would be anyone worth over a billion, because that's the level at which you can buy absolutely anything for your own personal use.
But - these people amuse themselves by buying and selling companies, not everyday things. The difference between one billion and ten billion is the difference between a small and a medium sized corporation.
At that level it probably still rankles that no matter how rich someone is, they still can't afford to buy Microsoft, Exxon or Google in their entirety.
He has been a civil servant all his life.
(His wife comes from money, but that's kept separate, supposedly)
In the 70s, he bought a ruin in Corrèze (Chateau de Bity), got his very own government to declare it a "Monument Historique", and, presto, all renovation work was paid for by the State.
Then he got the Croix Rouge or some similar organsation to buy the land around it (supposedly to build a retirement house) and keep it unbuilt so that his view would not be spoilt.
Despite having access to fond secrets (government cash, used to pay for secret services in untraceable ways, but also used as petty cahs to improve the pay of minister and their assistants), he has taken the habit of ultra luxurious holidays in Maldives, Morocco etc paid by people like Hariri (the billionaire former prime minister of Lebanon, killed last year in a bombing) or the King of Morocco or various corporate friends.
And that's of course on top of all the kickbacks from compnaies to finance political parties, and of the use of Paris's massive tax wealth when he was mayor to pay for lots and lots of goodies, including plenty of jobs and free appartments to friends and their kids, lovers, and obligés.
It's all documented, proven. Just read Le Canard Enchainé every week. Sometimes, it forces them to give up an appartment, or some of the shadier deals. But the good life goes on.
(And it's not everybody. De Gaulle is famous for paying himself for pastires when he brought his grandkids to the Elysée on week-ends) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
And she was the damn crown princess for the social democrat party and the most likely next pm. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Now out of jail, Alain Carignon got recently re-elected as chairman of the local branch of UMP (France's ruling party), here in the fair city of Grenoble, and probably intends to run for mayor... again. Who wrote that line about the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce? Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
And including plenty of fake jobs too, as it would be quite cruel to make your friends actually work.
