[huijzer]

I was just listening to a talk by Stephen Kotkin were he mentioned corruption. He said corruption is not binary. Instead, it's a continuum. The question is how much of the money a public servant spends will actually end up in the desired outcome. In China, he said, maybe 20% will end up in the pockets of the public servant while the other 80% is spent on the road. In Nigeria, he said, everything will go to the servant and there will be no road.

Source: https://youtu.be/ZD8BhZEJcjI at around 1:00:00.

[raincom]

This continuum hides one thing: overbidding in terms of project cost and underdelivery in terms of quality. At least in US, quality is maintained, while costing 300% more (look at any subway, rail projects). In the third world, projects are overbid, also underdeliver in terms of quality. No quality control at all.

[intrasight]

> it's a continuum

Corruption is multidimensional. There's the size. There's the nature of the parties involved. There's the question of whether it's legal or illegal - which itself as a continuum as my lawyer girlfriend always reminds me