"Some people are dissatisfied with a few of our actions. Do we need to..."
A core member of an interest group was relaying a well-intentioned "warning" from several senior executives of the Military Industrial Group to Pelius's father. Someone had reported that a military industrial enterprise had obtained military contracts by bribing Navy generals.
Actually, things like this... were not uncommon in the Federation. There was even a special department dedicated to investigating official corruption.
But cases involving the Federation and official corruption kept appearing one after another, as if they would never end! It was not just the military doing this. Almost everyone with even a little power—anyone capable of bringing benefits to capitalists—was doing it! Take the protective clothing and equipment purchased by the Labor Union, for example. Products with no technical barriers like these could be found all over the Federation.
Moreover, it was difficult to pick out a product of especially high quality or one that excelled in a particular area from among similarly priced products.
Most products in the same price range were basically no different from one another. So why did they only purchase a particular brand? What purpose did they have in purchasing that brand's products? They might claim that those products had this or that advantage, but in reality, they were all about the same.
At the end of the day, it was still a matter of transferring benefits.
This problem could not be prohibited in the Federation. It had even long since become an implicit set of Unspoken Rules.
As long as the Federation's senior politicians were investigated seriously, at least half of them would be suspected of official corruption.
Especially those old masters in Congress. They held bonds, financial products, and shares in various foundations, and could enjoy enormous dividends