As politicians scramble to build up their war chests, people await with bated breath how much and what will come their way. Any political campaign will collapse along the way without enough funds.
Such funds can smell so many ways, some would be fishy, others would be worse than that, being so stinky, and still others would smell of political opportunism.
The fishy ones are those stolen from government coffers by contractors and their bureaucratic cohorts through corruption. The estimated value of a government project, for instance, would be bloated by more than 100% so the unspent part for the project would be shared by the contractor, his politician protector who arranged for the project to be bagged by him, and the bureaucrat group who would take care of processes from the awarding of the bid to the collection of the payment for the project, including making sure auditors will approve the results. Everybody happy, they would say.
The really stinky funds for politicians are 100% stolen from government coffers—that means stolen from us. They come in the form of ghost project or other ways of sleight of hand where the money just disappears from government books, without giving us anything in return, not even a substandard road or other infrastructure.
Then there are the political investors. They invest their private funds to support political candidates who will have to return the favor, if they will win, in the form of government contracts. Naturally, for these “investors” to get their money back, the projects covered by such contacts would be riddled with corruption they would usually be super substandard.
But by such shady processes, we the ordinary citizens, will in a small way also benefit. The economic system will get a shot in the arm, perking up sky-high during election time. Big money will be circulating fast so businesses will also be alive. Even those in the professions will get some share from the booty as more people will have money to spend or to pay for professional fees.
Generally, we the ordinary people might get only a drop from the bucket of political funds, but it could come in a wholesome way. Not with bad karma attached. So we might be the real winners in the end.
In sum, money can smell bad in so many ways, but it is what makes the world go ‘round.**