50. The Good Bribe

Synopsis - A businessman, known for being less than honest, comes up to the PM and asks to be included in the Queen's honours list for which he'll give $10 million to help improve water supply to hundreds of thousands in Africa. Should the PM accept this good bribe?

Well, we all need a little recognition sometimes.

The trouble here is the element of corruption. There is usually an advantage gained by one or both parties involved in a corrupt deal. In this case, the businessman would get his OBE and the PM would feel good knowing he helped many underprivileged people get access to water. Baggini states that the PM's reward is moral self-indulgence, not quIte the usual reward one would expect.

Off the bat, I state that I thought it was not a bad proposal because I thought about the benefits reaped. Then as I read on, my opinion wavered.

Some questions: Isn't it the PM's job to look after the welfare of his people and not those far away? If the offer was to improve the lives of people at home, would it make less offensive/repugnant to accept the 'bribe'? If accepted and found out later, the PM might be in not as much trouble if his fellow voters benefited. Then it speaks badly of the PM's character - he's swayed by this one seemingly harmless gesture but what could be next? Greater dishonesty? Practice makes perfect also applies to crooks. And malleable isn't the sort of description voters would want of their PM.

What's an OBE worth? I'm not sure. I know lots of different persons get an OBE for various reasons but mostly for contributions to the country, its honour or to its people. Stephen Hawking, Richard Branson and Elton John got one each, demonstrating the breath of the spectrum of recipient types. For some, it's likely a matter of pride, especially in this case. There's no good reason for getting one but said businessman wants to show off.

But people do this sort of thing all the time though, especially with charitable donations when it's announced or etched on a wall that Mr. So and So generously gave $X. Not much effort, gain some fame. Would it be less ego-inflating if more effort was put in? Parents' community service in select schools gets their kids into the school. That's a little more fair I guess for this advantage.