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The psychological cost of corruption in developing countries
- ncmncm 5y agoCorruption in developed countries is much smoother. It is largely confined to the extreme upper classes, and wholly legal. We see it in long-running public-works projects, particularly tunnels and nukes (when we still built those), and in capital procurement, particularly military. The effect is a 4x-20x cost increase borne by big govenment, thus taxpayers, funneled into myriad pockets, skimmed off at each stage by contractual arrangements. A typical feature of this style of corruption is that so many separate power centers benefit, it becomes politically impossible to stop it. For example, the F-35 project, originally approved as a "low-cost" fighter, is built in 48 different US states, and is now the most expensive fighter plane ever built; yet still has over 600 potentially fatal design flaws. Another current example is NASA's SLS rocket, which if actually used is expected to cost fully 200x as much as a SpaceX Starship launch, for about the same cargo load. It is possible that only test launches will ever happen, at $2B each, using extra-expensive engines designed for re-use, but dropped in the ocean after one use. Other current or recent examples include Boston's Big Dig, New York City's 2nd Ave subway, and California's high-speed rail to nowhere.