As someone with a Latin background, it sure _seems_ like everyone does this. You get to a certain level in society / class structure and corruption just becomes

As someone with a Latin background, it sure _seems_ like everyone does this. You get to a certain level in society / class structure and corruption just becomes part of how the game is played. Nothing seems to be immune to this -- religious organizations, political parties, claimed alignment, revolutionaries, counter-revolutionaries, counter-counter-revolutionaries, dictators who grew up rich, dictators who grew up poor, dictators who grew up capitalist, dictators who grew up communist, etc. At some point money doesn't even talk, it becomes about stuff like positions, literal wielding of power, and influence with a capital "I", not social media type stuff but "I can change the world" sort of ambition. Politicians especially all seem to think of themselves as being part of a thin line, of being a vanguard of how the world should be run. I want to believe that public servants in the so-called developed world are above all this, but I have doubts. There just aren't enough guardrails in the system, it requires the rule-makers to make rules about themselves and for their allied enforcement officers to actually hold that law above their comradeship (and, above the power-gaining benefits of that very friendship).