>> In a way, corruption is the essence of capitalism, isn't it? Everything 
>> has its price, determined by "the market"... Anything else is just
>> stinkin' communism :)
> 
> This might be true if the corruption was totally open and visible to all and 
> equally accessible to all. At least at a simplistic level of analysis 
> "Market forces" are presumed AFAIK to apply to the whole market. If eg all 
> people seeking passports urgently, have equal access to all people who are 
> offering corrupt means of getting them, and if the asking price of all 
> corrupt suppliers are known to all, then the 'magic' forces of competition 
> apply and you just end up with stinking capitalism. [:-)]

But that's not a given for most items. According to that description of
when a product or service is marketed in a capitalist way, there are very
few situations where this actually applies.

"have equal access to all people who are offering": This is in general not
given. Usually people in rural areas (of the same country, or even the same
county) have not the same access as people in more central areas. People
with a computer and internet access have better access to products than
people without. And so on... I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

"the asking price of all corrupt suppliers are known to all": For most
large quantity or large value items, prices are usually negotiated behind
closed doors, usually without the negotiators knowing how much other buyers
of the negotiating seller have paid or offered, or what other offers the
negotiating buyer has. 

So if these are considered "normal" capitalist situations, the "corrupt
passport offer" situation is probably also. At least I don't see a
difference in essence between it and most plain "normal capitalist"
situations, where neither equal access to offers nor to pricing (and other)
information about products or services is given.


> But if the corrupt suppliers work in essential secrecy and the applicants 
> do not have access to information relating to the prices of all offerers 
> then "anomalies" occur. 

This is the normal situation in most capitalist societies, as far as most
products and services go. Pretty much all large quantity (or large value)
deals are negotiated behind closed doors and never published. Or do you
think it would be easy to find out how much your favorite large supermarket
chain pays for its products?

> Ideal Capitalism assumes that the system's rules are obeyed by all. 

Isn't part of "ideal capitalism" the minimization of rules, and having the
market forces take over the place of arbitrary rules? 

> Ideal corruption has trouble working out with any certainty what a rule
> is.

Not really. It seems to you, because they are not written down, and they
are not familiar to you. But for people who live with them, they know them
just as well as you know your rules. People in such places have usually a
pretty clear opinion about when, whom, how, and how much to bribe.

Gerhard
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