4 ms·

There’s a distinction to be made between a small customary bribe to an seriously underpaid state employee, and a larcenous bribe to a high official.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> a distinction to be made between a small customary bribe to an seriously underpaid state employee, and a larcenous bribe to a high official Not really. If normalized, it's part of their expected compensation package. Practically speaking, I think I'd suck it up and pay the bribe in the author's position. But I'd know I was doing wrong.
- LeanderK 4y ago
  > If normalized, it's part of their expected compensation package. But it already is normalised. I think this is morally difficult because it is customary, expected and if you refuse you will not get anything done but also won't change anything. So what have you gained? I don't think you can fight corruption this way, you just can't do it alone.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
silon42 4y ago
So it is a "tip" for quality of service.
pjc50 4y ago
Bribes scale up. How much is the underpaid state employee "tipping out" to his boss? Or had to pay to get the job in the first place?
agileAlligator 4y ago
They are both immoral
HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
Not according to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA basically says that as a representative of a US corporation (in my case, anyone at a Staff Engineer level or above), it's illegal to bribe an official of a foreign government. It does try to make a distinction (sort of) between the kinds of bribe you're talking about but in my FCPA training, that "distinction" boils down to "go ask your lawyer." The lawyer will just tell you how to do it in a way that doesn't look like a bribe, even though it still is.
- sonthonax 4y ago
  FCPA is such a stupid law. The universal way to bribe someone as an American is to pay them a absurd day rate for consulting. These people then have to be given fake roles when all they do is hand over money to corrupt officials. It just adds yet another layer. Just as an FYI it’s very hard to be convicted of under FCPA if you’re just operating in a personal capacity. So don’t worry about bribing policemen in foreign counties.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> a distinction to be made between a small customary bribe to an seriously underpaid state employee, and a larcenous bribe to a high official Not really. If normalized, it's part of their expected compensation package. Practically speaking, I think I'd suck it up and pay the bribe in the author's position. But I'd know I was doing wrong.

LeanderK 4y ago
> If normalized, it's part of their expected compensation package. But it already is normalised. I think this is morally difficult because it is customary, expected and if you refuse you will not get anything done but also won't change anything. So what have you gained? I don't think you can fight corruption this way, you just can't do it alone.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

silon42 4y ago

So it is a "tip" for quality of service.

pjc50 4y ago

Bribes scale up. How much is the underpaid state employee "tipping out" to his boss? Or had to pay to get the job in the first place?

agileAlligator 4y ago

They are both immoral

HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago

Not according to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA basically says that as a representative of a US corporation (in my case, anyone at a Staff Engineer level or above), it's illegal to bribe an official of a foreign government. It does try to make a distinction (sort of) between the kinds of bribe you're talking about but in my FCPA training, that "distinction" boils down to "go ask your lawyer." The lawyer will just tell you how to do it in a way that doesn't look like a bribe, even though it still is.

sonthonax 4y ago
FCPA is such a stupid law. The universal way to bribe someone as an American is to pay them a absurd day rate for consulting. These people then have to be given fake roles when all they do is hand over money to corrupt officials. It just adds yet another layer. Just as an FYI it’s very hard to be convicted of under FCPA if you’re just operating in a personal capacity. So don’t worry about bribing policemen in foreign counties.