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Comment by 3pt14159 | Hacker News Reader

The only one there that doesn't line up with my perceptions is Chile. I went there this time last year and their police and officials were nothing but transparent and professional. The fact that it isn't the same color as Canada must primarily be due to a general bias against South America as a whole.

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Or that you were in a certain part of Chile that is run well.

Or may be things are just uneven..

While officials in touch with foreigners in Santiago are clean, it could be that it's less the case at the local BMV in remote town..

I wasn't just in Santiago, I hit Valparaiso, Pichilemu, some small towns I cannot remember near the mountains and the sea.

1 (your experience) is not a very good sample for a statistical study :)

A bias against South America by the people who are reporting their perceptions of corruption in their own countries?

Not a bias, corruption runs way too deep:

Elected Mexican president spent 12 times above the limit!:

Limit: 26 million

Spent: USD $460 million!

http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=367033

It might be different in different part of public administration.

I spend time in Transylvania, Romania. I love to be here for the food, the people and the nature (there is a certain lack of seas, sadly).

That said, the country is a corrupt piece of sh-t. (I like to say: "The Romanians should shoot more than two politicians next time.")

But the police seems quite good. The rest of the justice systems (courts etc) are said to be a horror story that would need a plutoon of Kafkas to describe.

It has a pretty similar score to the US, I haven't personally observed police corruption here, have you?

(Obviously it goes on, I'm talking about first-hand perception)

Yeah I actually have seen US corruption a couple times. Unprofessional treatment at the border multiple times, unprofessional police officers during routine road stops, I worked for a company that needed their supercontractor to pay off a Senator to get a contract, etc.

Note the Per Capita Income vs Corruption scatter plots in a different post. Chiles actually one of the least corrupt for its income level. In fact, its generally not that corrupt. Approx = to the US (whether that's good or bad). In general I'd agree, although I'd think these stats would be thrown off by Santiago.

Chile's a bright light by South American standards, it's true - but there's more to corruption in society than the behavior of officials.

For instance, there's more nepotism and cronyism in Chile's private sector than there is in Canada, which reduces the economic mobility of ordinary Chileans.

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