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Comment by bguthrie | Hacker News Reader

As an American who has lived in India, I am with Guelo.

The "everyday folks" the parent refers to--for most of us, (relatively) wealthy people with white-collar jobs living in rich Western societies--constitute some 5% of the world's wealthiest people. Most human beings living today are not in a position to blow $20 (Indian gross income per capita, per World Bank, 2008: $1040/yr) on a perk, let alone a bribe for something as simple as applying for benefits or starting a business. That's where the outrage comes from.

Education is an important part of changing that culture, and they deserve your donation.

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You're argument is orthogonal to my point. I'm aware of the wealth differences. I see similar differences quite often in the inner city of Chicago. One overarching trend among the less well off that Guelo demonstrates is a venomance that gets in the way of cooperation and progress. As an example, I have seen young children refuse to be taught by quite capable teachers because the teacher is white and wears jeans that cost more than $20. There's an unfounded resentment here and it needs to be named. It's as if an apology is expected for being born into the middle class. The hate here is unhealthy because ultimately the person doing the hating is the one that loses.

My objection isn't to the wealth of the responder. My objection, and I think Guelo's, is that although there may be a market out there for sites that help people with the means throw around $20 bills, it wasn't really the time or the place to bring it up as a response to a site trying to fight genuine corruption, which the US does not suffer from much and which disproportionately affects the very poor.

Also, poverty in America is not, as far as I can tell, much like poverty in the US, although I've not spent any time in the rough parts of Chicago; like most middle-class white people, I spend most of my time on the north side.

Unrelated: I am mystified by your competent use of the term "orthogonal" coming just two words after you used "you're" instead of "your." That is just bizarre!

It's not a grammar mistake, I have trouble when I type quickly. Another error that I make: I often type a word that sounds similar in place of what I actually meant. Case in point: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2067123.

The child doing the hating has lost already, they didn't lose because they hated after the fact. They're children growing up in one of the most neglected public school systems in the country in one of the most segregated cities in the country. When I was growing up there, I feared and hated white people too, because my only experiences of them were negative ones. Sitting in that horribly overcrowded, neglected school with my decade old books faced with a teacher who would have much rather taught at the private school his/her kids went to, and who thought that my motivations were as simple as jealousy over his jeans wasn't an easy situation for a kid, and probably still isn't.

And why exactly would you ascribe a trait or "trend" that you notice in Guelo to the "less well off"? Do you have to be poor to be against bribery - or, rather - tipping for special treatment? Is the only possible motivation to be against the corrupt administration of services jealousy? These are not rhetorical questions.

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