Someone I know was recently arrested in an African country where he lives. Someone had uncovered a major kickback scheme being run by a relative of a cabinet-level politician, and this person was caught in the crossfire. He wasn’t involved in any real way, but he does some graphic design work and had made pamphlets or posters or something for a client that ended up being used as part of this crime. So, he and a lot of other people who were only peripherally involved like this were arrested. The politician didn’t want this scandal in the news, so he made sure that the crime went away. But, that still left the guy I knew locked up in jail. Even though there was now no crime, the cops weren’t going to release him from jail until they received a bribe. A family member of his wired money to Africa and then another family member hand carried that bribe to the police station so they would let him go.
Developing countries have situations where regular people get to, or have to bribe cops, officials, etc. just to get by day to day. But, it doesn’t mean that that’s where the corruption stops. They have all the same bribery of the president, prime minister, chief justice, etc. that you get in say the USA. But, there’s also corruption all the way down. It’s exhausting, and the rich people / corporations still always win.
This also varies widely from country to country. You’re not going to see the same level and type of corruption in a place like Liberia compared to for example Thailand, Colombia or Morocco.
Some countries have corruption so deep, it’s almost impossible to live without engaging somehow, and the State acts almost like a paramilitary group that beyond taxes, charges for protection from themselves, while other countries have flawed systems that still guarantee a certain degree of protections and due process to as many people as possible. And yet other countries are only poor but still have functional systems and institutions.
The term “developing country” is, in my opinion, quite misguided because it lumps together countries like Venezuela, Haiti, Belarus, Somalia or Eritrea, which are totally royally fucked, with countries like Argentina, Botswana, Thailand or Colombia, which have big problems but are in no way close to the other group.
Another way that low-level corruption hurts is that it’s so inefficient. When you have to know the right person and give the right bribe just to import/export your goods on time, the economy of your entire country slows down.
Yep. Super inefficient and unpredictable. You might temporarily know the right person to bribe, but that might change, or the price might go up. And your suppliers have to negotiate the bribes too. And your customers have their own issues.
It’s why the US is going to take a pounding from all the tariff BS. Not only are the tariffs high, nobody can guess from one month to the next what’s going to happen, so many have to cancel orders and wait it out.
Someone I know was recently arrested in an African country where he lives. Someone had uncovered a major kickback scheme being run by a relative of a cabinet-level politician, and this person was caught in the crossfire. He wasn’t involved in any real way, but he does some graphic design work and had made pamphlets or posters or something for a client that ended up being used as part of this crime. So, he and a lot of other people who were only peripherally involved like this were arrested. The politician didn’t want this scandal in the news, so he made sure that the crime went away. But, that still left the guy I knew locked up in jail. Even though there was now no crime, the cops weren’t going to release him from jail until they received a bribe. A family member of his wired money to Africa and then another family member hand carried that bribe to the police station so they would let him go.
Developing countries have situations where regular people get to, or have to bribe cops, officials, etc. just to get by day to day. But, it doesn’t mean that that’s where the corruption stops. They have all the same bribery of the president, prime minister, chief justice, etc. that you get in say the USA. But, there’s also corruption all the way down. It’s exhausting, and the rich people / corporations still always win.
This also varies widely from country to country. You’re not going to see the same level and type of corruption in a place like Liberia compared to for example Thailand, Colombia or Morocco.
Some countries have corruption so deep, it’s almost impossible to live without engaging somehow, and the State acts almost like a paramilitary group that beyond taxes, charges for protection from themselves, while other countries have flawed systems that still guarantee a certain degree of protections and due process to as many people as possible. And yet other countries are only poor but still have functional systems and institutions.
The term “developing country” is, in my opinion, quite misguided because it lumps together countries like Venezuela, Haiti, Belarus, Somalia or Eritrea, which are totally royally fucked, with countries like Argentina, Botswana, Thailand or Colombia, which have big problems but are in no way close to the other group.
Another way that low-level corruption hurts is that it’s so inefficient. When you have to know the right person and give the right bribe just to import/export your goods on time, the economy of your entire country slows down.
Yep. Super inefficient and unpredictable. You might temporarily know the right person to bribe, but that might change, or the price might go up. And your suppliers have to negotiate the bribes too. And your customers have their own issues.
It’s why the US is going to take a pounding from all the tariff BS. Not only are the tariffs high, nobody can guess from one month to the next what’s going to happen, so many have to cancel orders and wait it out.