[thingification]

If we know that corruption varies a lot between states (as in countries) and, worldwide, has reduced over time, why would we think it's inevitable?

I see a lot of estimating-as-inevitable in many problem areas - for example: the environment, race and sex relations, security / "privacy". I'm not sure whether it has increased, or I'm just more aware of it these days.

When we think that a problem is inevitable, we may conclude that various reponses that otherwise have little to recommend them might be a good thing: populisms, zero-sum thinking, authoritarianism, radical transparency. This idea of inevitability is in conflict with optimism in David Deutsch's sense: optimism as the principle that all problems are caused by lack of knowledge (and therefore that all problems are either solvable, or truly inevitable because of some law of physics - no examples of the latter being known).

[DayDollar]

No trying to be optimistic here- but the fact is that with the nightwatch state- alot of corruption simply ceased to be because the rule of law evaporated- making corruption effectively legal behaviour. Germany, the place where i live is incredible corrupt, but most of it is legal behaviour, thus not showing up in your statistics.