You need to ask why people ask for bribes. What happens when there are not enough opportunities/jobs/good-paying-jobs. Everybody tries to squeeze as much as the

You need to ask why people ask for bribes. What happens when there are not enough opportunities/jobs/good-paying-jobs. Everybody tries to squeeze as much as they possibly can out whatever opportunity they can, any way they can. Because the perception is opportunities being scanty, and earning opportunities being rare, anybody would act at the same level of dishonesty. In a society of abundance stealing/corruption rarely makes sense.