Time & Perspective Quote by Mike Royko

Royko turns City Hall into a punchline, then lets the punchline do what straight outrage can’t: make corruption feel both obvious and newly shameful. The line is built on a neat bit of municipal wordplay. “Ex-cons” reads like a demographic; “future cons” flips it into a prophecy. He’s not merely accusing individual officials of being crooks. He’s suggesting the institution itself is a halfway house for the already convicted and a training ground for the not-yet-indicted.

The specific intent is surgical: to puncture the civic self-seriousness that usually surrounds “rehabilitation” talk. In City Hall, the discourse is supposed to be about reforming criminals out there. Royko drags the spotlight back inside the chamber, implying the real rehabilitation problem is political culture - patronage, bribery, machine loyalty - and the polite language used to launder it.

Subtextually, it’s also a jab at selective morality. Cities love to debate whether the formerly incarcerated deserve a second chance, while quietly offering endless second chances to well-connected operators who treat public office like a side hustle. Royko’s cynicism isn’t abstract; it’s a Chicago-style realism, where the line between governance and racket has historically been porous enough to joke about without exaggerating.

Context matters: Royko came up in an era when “good government” rhetoric regularly collided with indictments, ward politics, and backroom deals. His joke lands because it’s legible to readers who already suspect the system isn’t broken - it’s staffed.