> Typically a system works okish if only the people at the top skim That's not how that works though. People one level under the top will try to get their cut

> Typically a system works okish if only the people at the top skim That's not how that works though. People one level under the top will try to get their cut too, then the level under until you get to the bottom. The system is ok-ish if the overall level of corruption is somewhat reasonable. In the case of Greece, the amount of corruption at the bottom level is not the cause, but the symptom of the fucked up state all the way up. Now, there is a difference between the top and bottom. The whole bottom level is creating a black economy. Not as good as a regular market, but something that self sustain itself. See Greece pre-euro. The few people a top though are the one that forged the accounts of Greece and pushed the country in its death spiral.