> I just pay off the local police with a small cut of my profits. Where I grew up in the US, it would either be impossible or takes years and millions of dollars to get all the approvals

You’re comparing permitting processes. That’s orthogonal to corruption. You can set up a beach bar in most of America without a permit and without getting cited for months on end, too, and plenty of people do it. (The pot-brownie sellers in Dolores Park aren’t licensed.)