Government Transparency Quotes
In the 19th century, most people, like Spooner, saw the combination of money and politics as per se corrupting—much like the view of John McCain in the 21st century. Howver, by then all of politics had been dependent on money. However, distrust of government and politicians prevailed, with money paying a large part of the distrust. Spooner was against the government levying taxes and thought that governments should be financed by the voluntary contributions of money or labor of the citizens. His idea was something like a religious and biblical tithing.
If a government can classify embarrassing information, then it does not have to lie which is why over-classification is so prevalent. But then the officials have to lie in the classification process by claiming national security is involved as opposed to their own or their party’s security from embarrassment. Most officials prefer to tell the truth and not deceive the public. However, a large proportion have their moral instincts compromised by confusing the national interest with the politicians’ interest
The main reason that the English or American Freedom of Information Act is not used so much by individuals is that the executive agencies make the process of obtaining documents very difficult and then when the government stonewalls, the requestor has to spend a great deal of time and often engage an attorney. The result is that few individuals can spend the time or money and the field consists mostly of media and non profit organizations which have staff and resources.
