Most corrupt country in the world? By what measure?
In most other countries, this would land people in jail, but in the US it's so utterly brazen that you can find the details online. See https://www.opensecrets.org/
Don't forget that the very phrase "Banana Republic" is a result of US corporations that had bought the US govt and gotten them to oust governments in 3rd world countries for the benefit of those US corporations.
You can absolutely use money to influence politicians in the US, but that's likely true of wherever you live too. New Zealand is a very not-corrupt country according to the corruption index, but I seem to recall Peter Thiel had no trouble purchasing citizenship in contravention of their laws - I'm sure money had nothing to do with that though.
Oh yes, that's why I consider them the worst. They're so corrupt they legalised it and have conned organisations like Transparency International into believing that in the US, paying off politicians isn't corruption. That's the funniest part... they call it speech.
But the same "speech" in any other country is considered corruption and bribery.
You were able to point to the NZ example with Peter Thiel precisely because corruption is so rare there and there was a massive outcry about his case.
The Transparency International index is based off of a survey of residents asking questions about perceived corruption. Paying off politicians, even if it were done as legal campaign contributions, would contribute to perceived corruption.
I know about the Peter Thiel example not because there was a massive outcry, I have basically no exposure to New Zealand news, but because I read about Peter Thiel and came across the story that way. I have no doubt that all I'd have to do to find an unending stream of money influencing New Zealand politicians is go to Google and search for it. But, I don't need to, because I already know that money is a corrupting influence worldwide - not just in the US.
That's very convenient for the US, and why it managed to avoid being #1 on the list.
In India a small businessman gets annoyed that he has to pay a $20 bribe to have an operating license issued, but it works. He will tell Transparency Intlt that bribery is rampant. In the US there is no bribe a small business owner can pay to make his business work because the multinational billion dollar corporation with offices on Wall Street, D.C, and every other major city has paid off the legislators and had them introduce laws that introduce a barrier to entry that no small business could ever scale. The US small business owner will honestly tell Transparency Intl that he's never had to bribe anyone.
opensecrets.org
My answer is that in those two countries, bribing legislators is illegal, while enforcement is poor.
In the US, it's all been made legal, so happens on a massive scale right out in the open.
In India a small businessman gets annoyed that he has to pay a $20 bribe to have an operating license issued, but it works. In the US there is no bribe he can pay to make his business work because the multinational billion dollar corporation with offices on Wall Street, D.C, and every other major city has paid off the legislators and had them introduce laws that introduce a barrier to entry that no small business could ever scale.
opensecrets.org