In India this is so common that it's not even considered any thing out of the usual, let alone cause a realization. I have tons of personal anecdotes which wou

In India this is so common that it's not even considered any thing out of the usual, let alone cause a realization. I have tons of personal anecdotes which would make this post a hell lot longer. But for feelers, these days your ordinary mid level bribe making government employee is worth around 500 crores. For the western readers, that is in the ball park of $60 to $70 million. Higher up the hierarchy, the assistants to ruling party ministers, top bureaucracy, district level administration, or head of government organizations average twice to thrice that easily. The politicians themselves are likely in the ballpark of a few billion dollars worth. The bribe market in India is so hot, you need to pay bribes, to get posted to positions where you can make more bribe. There's an entire corruption economy. So immense that it would dwarf anything real you could make working hard. Most of these people have regular meets and hire top lawyers to work around legally. They also pay-up the hierarchy for protection. By the way it's not just some evil cabals meeting underground. Parents explicitly aspire their kids get these jobs. People spend bulk of their 20's just on entrance examinations, just for this. The scale of corruption economy in India is just so mind boggling, it would be hard to explain any non-Indian just really how immense and all pervasive it is.