Message-ID: <330D4A8C.50B1@uniontel.net> Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 23:11:08 -0800 From: David Johnson <mailto:pinefarm@UNIONTEL.NET> Subject: Re: Mexican vacation To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Anton Ljutic wrote: >
> David,
>
> Have you considered the possibility that graft is just another way of
> allocating the resources? These petty bribes are a supplement to the
> lowly income which these officials earn. It's "user pay", but with a
> twist: the poor pay LESS, as a rule. So, it's an "ability to pay" tax.
> It keeps the official taxes low :-)
>
> Our atavistic giving of the "tip" is a remnant of this system, I think.
> The tip also supplements the income of the recipient and is taken into
> consideration by the employer.
>
> Graft becomes a problem when it leads to "closing and eye" to crime. But
> according to my readings, the US polictical system or the NYPD is not
> immune to graft, which has not prevented the US from calling itself (or
> being) a "developed" country.
>
> I also think that graft is not a "cultural" problem or anything to do with
> lack of integrity. Rather, it seems to me to be a structural problem:
> Graft is hard to stifle unless one is prepared to compensate the recipient
> in some other way.
>
> These are just quick, on-line responses on my part. I'd be interested to
> hear the opinions of others. But no long polemics, PLEASE.
>
> Anton Ljutic
> Canada
You make some good points but, it seems as if it is very difficult for some people to criticize anything in the third world. Maybe its guilt on our part, I don't know but, I do know that people are much more willing to tolerate and rationalize behaviors in these countries than they are in their own. When all else fails, you can always fall back on the fact that these behaviors exist in all cultures. Its true they do, but, not to the extent that I saw in Mexico. You say that poor people pay less of these bribes but, you don't know that and neither do I.It may well be that, as a percantage of income, they actually pay more. It seems condescending to excuse behaviors in other cultures we wouldn't tolerate in our own. Are there no behaviors which are inherently wrong and thus intolerable in all societies? I think there are and, official corruption is one of them. Dave Johnson