You're conflating the people who commit the corrupt acts with the people who pay for the corrupt acts. Corrupt acts typically require some sort of payment, enou

You're conflating the people who commit the corrupt acts with the people who pay for the corrupt acts. Corrupt acts typically require some sort of payment, enough payment that it's worth the risk, so it would need to be significant relative to the salary. The poorer you are, the cheaper it is to get you to do a corrupt act. The wealthier you are in comparison, the cheaper it is (relative) to get someone to do a corrupt act. But to your point, it takes two to tango, the person paying for the corruption and the person carrying out the corruption. I think the OP's point is the wealthy are the ones paying for it and asking for the deeds to be done. Having said that, there are other types of corruption like CYA coverups we see in the news from police departments and justice systems. The Breonna Taylor grand jury result comes to mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Breonna_Taylor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Breonna_Taylor