Hello everybody, I'm curious what you think about this issue. A friend of mine (not me) is currently in a third world country and has to do a visa run (a stupid bureaucratic thing in itself already).
It's very common to give 5$ more lest the officials let you wait for a couple of hours while you are anxiously waiting and worrying if they will approve the visa or not.
Many people told my friend that he should give the "coffee money" to make things easier.
On the one hand,
there might be a moral problem with giving money to corrupt officials because it rewards bad behavior and gives even more money to government officials,
it's probably illegal, though never enforced, (we are talking about my friend here, I would never do such a thing)
but on the other hand
if it was not a moral issue, my friend would happily pay 5$ for less stress and saving time
my friend is already very anxious about essentially being at the mercy of the officials
when in Rome, do as the Romans do - it's the responsibility of the citizens to fix their country
refusing to pay would have little impact on corruption
as with the grey and black market, corruption is sometimes the only thing that keeps things running in an authoritarian system - maybe it's good that you can get everything you want with enough cash
Please let me know what you think!