all hands in the cookie jar

I recently went to pick up some wood with my host father. We went to the local government nursury/forestry station which also sells wood. It was quite the ordeal, rather poorly organized though I heard that usually they had the wood cut and stacked for you, but we had to run all over the forest finding what we were looking for. They were running a little behind, I had heard.

In any case, I talked with the main forest ranger. I asked him what exactly he did, and what purpose the nursury served and the station in general. He expained the nursury was for trees that they replanted (either in other forests or parks) and was his main job. Secondarily, he obviously had to protect the forest that was under his jurisdiction. Finally, there was the saw mill which he oversees. After working for 10 years in the same position, he still receives only 500 lei a month (about 40 dollars). That’s not even enough money for gasoline for his car for a month. It is worthless. And so, like forest rangers all over moldova, he draws money out from the saw mill. He has 3 workers, who also get paid no more than 400 lei (32 dollars) from the state, and he steals enough to be able to double their salary. He steals by overestimating the amount of waste material (bark, unusable wood) and underestimating the amount of usable wood. So with that usable wood that actually remains, he sells at a 100 percent profit without the state knowing, and with that money he raises his salary as well as the workers’ salaries.

He said this is the case all over Moldova. In fact, it must be – no one can live on 500 lei a month.

This is a classic example of what the state does – it creates situations in which people cannot possibly survive, and then makes all possible escape from said situation illegal. Since people must survive, everyone does what is illegal and because everyone is doing it, the state must look the other way. As a result, laws no longer have value, and people learn that the state is not only weak, but false. Another result (which is must more sinister) is that those with political power can use this situation to their advantage. If the whole world is cheating, I will send the cops to bust only those who are cheating from the opposition party. And so police, instead of being a force which maintains justice universally, becomes a political tool.

In my knowledge, the same exact situation occurs in education and police work (underpaid workers seek money through illegal means --> state turns its head), and I’m sure it occurs in lots of other places that I’m not aware of.

Resolving the situation requires change not just for forest rangers or teachers or police officers, but requires a complete revamping of the system. People are not stoic, and shouldn’t be. They need a reason to work and work hard, and love of country is not enough. They should never have to cheat to make a buck – making a buck should be integrated into the system – and if the system has no money, they need to tighten their belts.