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This is a common thing here in India, be it a traffic police man or govt employee in office . Not cigarettes but currency is valid, you are expected to pay base

This is a common thing here in India, be it a traffic police man or govt employee in office . Not cigarettes but currency is valid, you are expected to pay based on benefit you get. You get ₹1000, you have to pay around 10%. While it is annoying to pay, even more annoying thing is the entitlement of authorities. People here are so used to the informal tax they wouldn’t bother resisting in anyway.

dreamcompiler 6y ago
These practices are called "Facilitating Payments" [0] (as opposed to bribery) and they're explicitly allowed by laws like the FCPA [1]. It seems strange for them to be legal, but the distinction is that you're merely expediting the work of a bureaucratic official that was going to do the work anyway, if perhaps more slowly. When you start paying decision-makers to make high-value decisions in your favor, that becomes bribery and it gets illegal very fast. (Although there can be a lot of gray area involved.) The fact that these practices are technically legal doesn't make them less odious, IMO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitating_payment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitating_payment [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act
- jcims 6y ago
  I worked for a very large bank for a spell and distinctly remember this from their mandatory anti-bribery training. I thought it was hilarious that this was enshrined in the formal material, but was glad because i would stress putting it on my expense report.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  That has me thinking. A non-euphemistic facilitative payment would be like priority mail essentially of paying more to the root institute for a higher tier of service. Reminds me of the ironic case of university admission legality - bribing the institution itself with say donations large enough to get your name on a building wing gets your lazy idiot kid into a prestigious university but doing so directly is bribery. The funny thing is that it is so transparently selfish yet it actually makes sense from an incentives letter. If the dillution from lazy idiot rich kid's admission allows for funding to do more positive things to improve quality overall if spent wisely. Doing directly just lines their pocket. Now government vs private university is apples to oranges but it hints at a source of harm from corruption other than just unfairness is skewing decision making towards personal benefits instead of who they should be operating on behalf of.
- isolli 6y ago
  I couldn't help but think of Bitcoin network fees when I read your sentence: "you're merely expediting the work of a [miner] that was going to do the work anyway".
- afarrell 6y ago
  I thought facilitation payments were illegal...
- spookthesunset 6y ago
  Very interesting way of framing it! Thanks!

dreamcompiler 6y ago

These practices are called "Facilitating Payments" [0] (as opposed to bribery) and they're explicitly allowed by laws like the FCPA [1]. It seems strange for them to be legal, but the distinction is that you're merely expediting the work of a bureaucratic official that was going to do the work anyway, if perhaps more slowly. When you start paying decision-makers to make high-value decisions in your favor, that becomes bribery and it gets illegal very fast. (Although there can be a lot of gray area involved.) The fact that these practices are technically legal doesn't make them less odious, IMO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitating_payment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitating_payment [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act

jcims 6y ago
I worked for a very large bank for a spell and distinctly remember this from their mandatory anti-bribery training. I thought it was hilarious that this was enshrined in the formal material, but was glad because i would stress putting it on my expense report.
Nasrudith 6y ago
That has me thinking. A non-euphemistic facilitative payment would be like priority mail essentially of paying more to the root institute for a higher tier of service. Reminds me of the ironic case of university admission legality - bribing the institution itself with say donations large enough to get your name on a building wing gets your lazy idiot kid into a prestigious university but doing so directly is bribery. The funny thing is that it is so transparently selfish yet it actually makes sense from an incentives letter. If the dillution from lazy idiot rich kid's admission allows for funding to do more positive things to improve quality overall if spent wisely. Doing directly just lines their pocket. Now government vs private university is apples to oranges but it hints at a source of harm from corruption other than just unfairness is skewing decision making towards personal benefits instead of who they should be operating on behalf of.
isolli 6y ago
I couldn't help but think of Bitcoin network fees when I read your sentence: "you're merely expediting the work of a [miner] that was going to do the work anyway".
afarrell 6y ago
I thought facilitation payments were illegal...
spookthesunset 6y ago
Very interesting way of framing it! Thanks!