It's growth, Jim, but not as we (thought we) knew it...
I needed a contract for employees; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing these legal things and you promise to pay them.
I needed a set up an IT system; The way you do it, apparently, is you contact one of a handful of companies who specialize in doing IT systems and you promise to pay them.
It's doing shit, Jim, but the exact same way it has always been.
If this is indeed happening and there has not been any reporting, you should reach out to some news organizations.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-san-francisco-pu...
btw, anyone want to buy a Winnebago?
I recently had to bribe some government officials just to get them to process a real estate permit release.
It was either that or wait 0-2 years for something to happen.
Who do you think will report on that? With what proofs?
US normalizing corruption under a more friendly name, where's the news?
What OP describes is pure corruption, eastern more fucked up parts of EU have this ecosystem for 3 decades. It takes easily 70-80% of the budget to get anything done (say play park for children). If company wants some grant to ie improve their processes, the cut may be more like 30-50% percent.
That's how mafia runs things, and ie in quite a few places mafia is very deeply ingrained into state and processes that manage those grants. If its not outright italian mafia, then some self-brewed oligarchs connected to mobsters and politicians capture the drip. I come from such a state and literally everybody knows this, nothing secretive there. My cousin worked for state department responsible for EU grants, and it was a corrupt shitshow where processes were often bypassed every single effin' day. The only positive thing is, our country is so small and economically weak that even if all money end up stolen EU doesn't bat an eye since its pocket money for them.
It's not material to your point, but if you're flipping houses, and don't have much cash, and have someone you've worked with before and that trusts you, it's not unheard of for then highly skilled and licensed tradesperson (eg electrician) to take a percentage off the sales price. Most people don't buy or sell houses that often, and most people don't work for promised future cash, so it's definitely not normal though.
Unlike the case you mention, you need to pay someone to get public money or you won't get any.
How do you think that happens?
We're not talking about stopping water contamination here, we're talking about funding. It's balmy.