Death penalty

Larceny pays, if you’re the ceo. Should you get caught with your hand in the company till (or fingering your back-dated stock options), you might have to submit to the indignity of a perp walk but the stockholders pay your legal fees and the odds are you won’t do a day in the pokey. (Get busted for stealing a loaf of bread, on the other hand, and it’s hard time for sure.) But what penalty awaits those who abuse public trust?

In this country, there’s always a convenient underling to take the fall for huge public scandals. It’s part of the job description, as in “Goat, comma, scape.”

So what a welcome surprise to see two developments from across the Pacific. In Japan, the agriculture minister committed suicide rather than face questioning in a corruption scandal. And in China, the official in charge of drug safety has actually been sentenced to death.

Can you imagine anything like that here? “Heck of a job, Brownie” would take on a whole new dimension.

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