[brnt]

Like I said, personal experience isn't going to get us very far in establishing what bribing is. To me it is certainly very similar.

[NovemberWhiskey]

That's fine but my post isn't about personal experience; it's a list of ways in which the two things are different in a concrete, practical sense based on their common meanings.

Could you expand why you think they are similar rather than just suggesting that the matter is subjective?

[brnt]

In the course of going about ones business, ill-specified amounts need to be paid extra if expedient service is to be expected. This is the local custom.

[el-salvador]

I also find tipping culture similar to bribing. In the sense that it adds to the take home income of the worker receiving the tip/bribe.

[irrational]

But you don’t have to tip. Other than maybe dirty looks absolutely nothing will happen if you don’t tip. The ones being tipped are totally powerless. They are society’s poor. It is closer to a voluntary socialist tax to help the poor than any kind of bribery to officials in a place of power.