Humans without self or external discipline are like a car speeding at 100 mph without brakes, the outcome is predictable and almost always fatal.

I left it all behind me a decade ago and moved to Canada. One of the last stories from the EU which finally gave me the push was about the MPs expense accounts. The get generous salary plus automatic travel and office allowances. They then also claim for "other" expenses for which they did not require any documentation or proof of actual expense.
I would never suggest any of them were even slightly dishonest in any way...... but the total of these undocumented personal expenses was about 600 million euros per year for about 600 MPs.
If it was a train, it would be carrying gravy.