You can't steal

Shortly after the New Year, Prosecutor General Chaika said: in the first 9 months of last year, the courts considered 806 criminal cases of corruption crimes committed by high-ranking officials, mainly in the regions. If you dig around on the Internet, you can find out that the mayor of the city of Krasnoarmeysk near Moscow received 7.5 years for bribes, the head of the representative office of the Ministry of Defense was detained with a bribe of 1 million 200 thousand rubles, a criminal case was initiated against the head of the Maryino government sector for extortion of 1 million 400 thousand rubles, an investigation is underway against the vice-governor of the Kurgan region, who provided patronage to his company in obtaining a state order in the amount of 17 million rubles. And there is a lot of such information scattered on the net. However, the trouble is that for some reason the main TV channels - First, Russia, NTV - practically do not talk about these stories, and few people, except for their families, know about the arrests of officials. Meanwhile, if state television, radio, newspapers spoke in detail and clearly about all these cases, then the rest of the officials - mayors, deputy ministers and vice-governors (even if only at the grassroots and middle levels) - would pick up this signal, as in Soviet times they would catch signals from the notes in the Pravda newspaper, and at least would moderate their appetites, and perhaps they would even understand that no matter how the rope twists, they will be caught, it is impossible to take bribes - it is fraught. You can also get a term, and if not a term, then a "wolf ticket" for work in the public service and in companies with state participation.

Stories now regularly appear in the media about how the governor built such a rather big stone palace for himself, a high official sent a child to study in England, near the police station there is a personal car of a comrade major at the price of the annual budget of this department, and you read the tax returns of officials that they now they are obliged to make it public, and you wonder: wives have a car park or hectares of land. It would seem that the tax authorities should ask them a simple question: “You had to plow ten years with your salary for such a house and a car, where did such money come from?” We can assume the answer: "And they gave me." Did you pay taxes on this “gift”? With a house worth several million, the tax is several hundred thousand, and the salary is 30 thousand. What income will you pay tax on? I'll have to sell the car, my wife's pearl necklace (again, a gift!) Also - and pay. No need to plant - let them pay. When this becomes the norm, then the number of people who like to take such “gifts” will decrease greatly.

The trouble is that we, the society, have already begun to perceive these “Maybachs” and “houses” as the norm of life - “everyone is taken”. No, not all. Is Corruption Lubricating Oil for the Economy? Lies: this is a poisonous "oil" that corrodes everything around. Why do we need real competition, if the whole question is who will give more and faster to the right official? Why upgrade if you can pay and get what you need? We give bribes to firefighters, firefighters take them, and then Perm. More than one hundred and fifty dead. Here it is - the real price of a bribe. Until we ourselves understand that it is shameful to give bribes, to take bribes, we will not do anything with our country. The president can create anti-corruption councils, the Duma - to pass laws, law enforcement officers - to imprison through one ... Everything is useless, because some will imprison and imprison, and the other half will exchange banknotes in envelopes. A society that is infected with lies and hypocrisy will certainly perish, just as the Soviet Union perished in its time. And there is only one way out: stop perceiving theft as the norm. You can't steal - period!