Quote: (03-26-2017 01:27 PM)brick tamland Wrote:
I wasn't aware, but Russia would have good reason to have a media blackout. Check out the corruption perceptions index.
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Transparency International (TI) has published the Corruption Perceptions Index ( CPI) since 1996, annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." [1] The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private benefit." [2]
The CPI currently ranks 168 countries "on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)."
Russia has a score of 29. The United States has 74, and India , Brazil and China all score 40.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupti...ions_Index
Maybe it should be called "corruption sophistication index". The US is corrupt as hell, but is generally a lot harder to see and prove. In a less sophisticated system, you know exactly how you are getting screwed. In the US, it's generally more hidden, so you know you are getting screwed but it's a lot harder to pin down and prove exactly how.
The level of sophistication is similar to the difference between an old school dictatorship where everyone knows who is in charge and they maintain rule by brute force, vs modern politics where you have a democracy and mass media and pervasive clouds of bullshit and obfuscation and the people with real power stay in the shadows so the most you can do is take down their puppets.
Also, on a more straightforward level, some people will say that in many cultures, what the US considers bribery is really just part of the compensation for many jobs, kind of like tipping a waiter. Why should you have to bribe someone to give you a license for [xxx], they should just do their job. Why should you have to bribe a waitress to bring you food, they should just do their job. It probably makes more sense to just pay them more and expect them to perform, but then the money for additional compensation has to come from somewhere, and you have to effectively evaluate if they are doing their job. I'm not trying to defend a model that includes bribery, I'm just sharing the perspective I've heard.