untrustworthiness

Two news items today showing why the state is not to be trusted:

• an individual's personal information was illicitly accessed after he was mentioned by a presidential candidate
• the Treasury Department is hiding exactly how much they're paying to a financial agent for help with the bailout, despite being "committed to transparency"

I never understand why people feel it helps to pass bills with extra safeguards or to set up regulations "the right" way; with the national state as large and unwieldy as it is, there's no way to ensure that things will be done even as promised in writing.