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It's bourgeois aristocracy, the same is true in Europe in a smaller scale: most corruption is done through connections and who-knows-who rather than a peasant cash bribe.

Just more layers to peel off from the same basic concept: greed. His description of how unacceptable it is when it looks transactional but how it is fine, and even expected, if it comes from the traditional ways of indirect corruption summarises it rather well.

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The massive difference is that in Mexico you have to bribe cops all the time when you get pulled over. In the US the corruption doesn't have a direct impact on your life like that.

No, you have to live in fear that your health insurance is enough for when you eventually need it. Ah, and in fear that your employer is kind enough to not fire you, if so that health insurance might get harder.

Living in fear everyday, just in different ways. I think that has an impact in someone's life.

Maybe it was not such a good idea to demolish the warriors caste after all? It seems that the 3rd state has merged with, or rather became, the aristocracy. Taking into account that the peasants defended them against the neo-warrior-caste in the last Great War, and that their lavish lifestyle comes greatly from taxation of the peasants, the long noses should hang for a long time now.

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