I lived in Korea prior to Chun's liberalization in the late 80's and the traffic police would ask for bribes instead of writing tickets. This money flowed up t

I lived in Korea prior to Chun's liberalization in the late 80's and the traffic police would ask for bribes instead of writing tickets. This money flowed up to the local chief of police, who became very wealthy, and across to politicians. Complaints were hushed up or ignored. People who complained too much and journalists who didn't play ball just disappeared. what changed this was the end of media censorship, which people knew was real because the guys you called to deal with media problems stopped answering their phones. Corruption in the US has gotten quite bad and there's still a long way to go.