Clarissa's Blog

People are so lovely and naive. I love them.

This “free book” plan is a very basic, very primitive corruption scheme. A relative of a grifting bureaucrat quickly puts together a children’s book. The state purchases it at $140 per copy. The author pockets the money and kicks back half to the grifter bureaucrat. Look up the number of children in this age range in the state, and you can imagine what sort of money we’re looking at. Given that the scheme is supposed to be run on a monthly basis, everybody who donated to these politicians can be repaid with interest using taxpayer money.

The value of this plan for any actual children is nil, because in reality you can’t walk 500 ft without coming across a little wooden library filled with completely free books. Children grow out of these books very fast, and parents donate them in enormous quantities. There are also public libraries everywhere.

As much as I love childish naiveté in fully grown people, it might be a good idea to start discerning at least some very basic corruption schemes.

“Look at how much Republicans hate children!” You absolute choo-choo, you’re being robbed openly and shamelessly, and you curtsy and beg for more.

If you look at this news item and your first instinctive reaction is not “this is a corruption scheme”, you are NGMI in neoliberalism.