The Gap Between the Poor and Rich
Corruption
Harshat Kaur
Ivana Munoz
Destin Mikouiza-mbassi
Juan Arenas
Jesus Larios
Tajeer Robinson
Iris Chavez

How did our group go from the Gap between the Rich and the poor to corruption?
From the article: “Eight men own
more than 3.6 million people do:
our economics”, by Mark Goldring
It takes about: “Narrowing the gap
between the richest and the rest
requires us to take on a more
challenging task than asking eight
men to change their behaviour.”
This had our group thinking about
problems that currently exist, such
as
1.Poverty
2.Starvation
3.Exploitation
4.Under the table deals
5.Monopoly
One of the cause of these issues is
corruption because the money is not

Why have there been so few successful
attempts to fight corruption?
The question becomes: Are we fighting against the corrupt or corruption?
It is difficult to find honest incorruptible person to eliminate corrupt and
corruption.
Corrupt people are so smart they will corrupt any one to do their bidding.
They have the government under their belt

Types of Corruption:
Bribery
Trading in Influence
Patronage- favoring supporters, parties, etc for a “favor” in return
Nepotism and cronyism- Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an
official is a form of illegitimate private gain.
Electoral Fraud - Illegal Interference with the process of an process of an election
Embezzlement- Fraud of entrusted funds

Examples of Political
corruption
It turns out that the Federal Reserve holds
credit-default swaps on the debt of Florida
schools, and on debt owed by the states of
California and Nevada. So the Federal Reserve
would profit if one of those states defaulted on
its debt.
The Watergate scandal involves people connected to the
reelection campaign of Richard Nixon stealing secret
documents and wiretapping phones at the Democratic
National Committee office. Nixon attempted to cover this
up and ended up resigning as a result.
The Guantanamo Bay files leak involves 779 documents
associated with detainees at this detention camp.
Independent news organizations and WikiLeaks published
the documents. The purpose was to show that the
government is holding people without charges.
Joe Cassano: As a founding member of
AIG's financial-products unit, Cassano, who ran the group
until he stepped down in early 2008, knew them quite well.
In good times, AIG's massive CDS-issuance business
minted money for the insurer's other companies. But those
same contracts turned out to be at the heart of AIG's
downfall and subsequent taxpayer rescue. So far, the U.S.
government has invested and lent $150 billion to keep AIG
afloat.

political corruption-is the use of powers by government for illegitimate private gain
An example of Political Corruption:
On December 4th under President Barack
Obama’s administration, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers denied an easement for
construction of the pipeline under the
Missouri River.The reason why they denied
it was because the oils from the Dakota
Access Pipeline project would leak into
the river and contaminate not only our
drinking water but the life that lives in
the river.But on January 24th, 2017
President Donald Trump signed an
executive order to ADVANCE the
construction of the pipeline and on
February 7th, Trump authorized the Army
Corps of Engineers to proceed, ending its
environmental impact assessment and the
associated public
comment period. It is said to believe
that the reason why President Trump wants
to move forward with the construction
knowing the harm that comes along with
the process and going against the people
of the EPA (EPA is the environmental
protection agency which was created for
the sole purpose of protecting human
health and the environment by writing and
enforcing regulations based on laws
passed by Congress.) because he has
invested a good amount of money on this
project. Which means if this project
doesn’t move forward, he will lose the
millions he’s invested so in order for
that not to happen he is using the power
he has as President to make sure this
project IS passed.

What is corruption? How does one become corrupt
Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
People become corrupt because of:
Extreme poverty and opportunity. A person cannot be corrupt unless there is a chance to
be so;
Poor leadership, especially by leaders, senior civil servants and top businessmen.
Greed and dishonesty. Even rich people can become corrupt ;
Lack of ethical standards or codes of conduct that prompt people to act with integrity.
A belief that they will not be caught and that even if caught, punishment will be light;
Competition for insufficient goods and services.

how does corruption cause poverty
The biggest problems occur when corrupt officials and other elites decide to make the poor
pay for the benefits the rich enjoy. Poverty makes a country poor. less supply, less
demand, less works, less earn, less save. In all case corruption is a matter. Corruption is a
cause.

Factors that cause People to be Corrupt
There are many things that can lead to corruption, where
personality characteristics can play a role.
People become self-centered and only seek their needs first
over other people.
Individuals get greedy and thrive to manipulate others, just
to gain self-enrichment.
Poverty, poor leadership, and opportunity are also causes
for people to be corrupt.
A person blame others for their actions to avoid the
consequences, rather than taking responsibility.

Statistics on Corruption
In Afghanistan, millions of dollars that was supposed to go
to reconstruction have been wasted or stolen.
Brazil has been rocked by the Petrobas Scandal, in which
politicians are taking kickbacks in exchange for awarding
public contracts.
The most corrupt countries are; Haiti, Afghanistan,
Venezuela. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Syria, North Korea, Sudan,
and among other countries.
A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a
commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for

Effect of corruption on the inequality
Disparity has extended because of the expanding centralization of politica
power among the corporate and budgetary world class that has possesse
capacity to impact the standards by which the economy runs
Tax laws have exceptional escape clauses for the accomplices of multifacet
investments and private-value reserves, extraordinary favors for the oil
gas industry, bring down minimal wage assess rates on the most astoun
earnings and reduced estate taxes on great wealth.
CEOs now use stock buybacks to boost share prices when they cash in thei
stock options.

What the Government is doing now?
America’s anti-corruption laws are dangerously out of date. While certain corrupt practices are already
illegal, there are many perfectly legal ways to exchange money in return for favorable treatment from
politicians. The American Anti-Corruption Act criminalizes “legalized corruption” to ensure that America’s
government works for the people.
1. Ban lobbyist bundling.
a. Lobbyists regularly bundle together big contributions from their friends and colleagues and
deliver them in one lump sum to politicians. This turns lobbyists into major fundraisers, giving
politicians an incentive to keep them happy by working political favors.
i. The Act prohibits lobbyists from bundling contributions.

What the Government is doing now?
❖ Stop donors from hiding behind secret-money groups.
➢ Elections are being flooded with big money funneled through groups with secret donors. These secretive
groups spend money directly to influence elections and make unlimited contributions to super PACs, which run
ads to elect and defeat candidates.
■ Under the Act, any organization that spends meaningful funds on political advertisements is required to
file a timely online report disclosing its major donors.
❖ Strengthen anti-corruption enforcement.
■ Agencies routinely fail to enforce the anti-corruption rules that already exist due to partisan deadlock –
and when they are able to act, they often lack the enforcement tools necessary to uphold the law. The
result is an elections system where even lax rules can be skirted or broken with impunity.
● The Act strengthens enforcement of anti-corruption laws by overhauling the broken Federal
Election Commission and giving prosecutors the tools they need to combat corruption.
From: http://anticorruptionact.org/whats-in-the-act/

Solution To Corruption
★ Redistribution of wealth
★ Raising the number of jobs along with raising minimum
wage
★ No loophole in taxes
★ Regulation laws for government officials
★ Universal Health Care

What we are going to do?
➔Promote on Social Media
➔Drop off editorial(s) to the Newspaper Club