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by jules
3624 days ago
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> The ability to pay your way out of it, usually comes together with the ability to talk your way out of it No it doesn't. Hardly anybody would pay a large bribe if they could simply talk themselves out of it instead. > Of course with this mindset you don't get to be 4% of the world's population but have 25% of it's prison population. No, that is the result of crazy harsh sentences. That is a problem, but applying justice selectively to rich people is not the solution to that problem. The solution is to decrease the punishment for crimes that aren't serious, and then apply it equally. A prison sentence for a 1 day visum overstay is ridiculous, of course. |
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That's the case in game theory terms.
Fortunately real people don't act like that.
"Corrupted" third world officials and such are not profit-maximizing automata (well, a few are. Most are regular people trying to make a buck for the family on top of meagre salaries).
Even if you can afford a bribe and they know it (e.g. you look rich westerner etc), there's often tons of room for negotiation on the price. Including talking your way out of it, them getting a liking for you and just letting you go etc.
But I primarily talked about people who can't afford to pay and it shows. Sometimes what started as a probe as to whether you can pay them a bride even ends up as them getting out of their way to help you for free, if they see you cannot pay and they take sympathy on you.
Aside from "corruption" which might be all some westerner can see, those places also have ages old codes of hospitality and such.
>A prison sentence for a 1 day visum overstay is ridiculous, of course.
Well, if you can't change the law, another way is to selectively enforce it on someone's discretion (bribe or not). It might not benefit 100% of the people but it benefits massively more people than strictly following the ridiculous harsh law.