It is not a matter of accidental personalities, of “dishonest businessmen” or “dishonest legislators”. The dishonesty is inherent in and created by the system. So long as a government holds the power of economic control, it will necessarily create a special “elite”, an “aristocracy of pull”, it will attract the corrupt type of policitian into the legislature, it will work to the advantage of the dishonest businessman, and will penalize and eventually destroy the honest and the able.
Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise – Ayn Rand (1959)