<story><title>Disneyland with the Death Penalty (1993)</title><url>http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gibson.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>narrator</author><text>I think the most interesting aspect of Singapore&amp;#x27;s government is they pay government officials multimillion dollar salaries.  This makes them very hard to bribe.  If you think about the size of the budgets government officials have authority over compared to their salaries, the temptation to be bribed and thus be dominated by corporate interests is overwhelming.  In Singapore the incentives are reversed.  Any allegation of corruption risks a lost job.  In other countries they would get fired and go to work at the companies that bribed them but in Singapore the private companies will have difficulty competing with their government salary, not to mention the prestige that comes with being a government official.&lt;p&gt;I would be in support of that being tried in the U.S, especially for senior level positions.  It would probably save money in the long run.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_0nac</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve heard this theory quite a few times, but the fact that there is virtually zero low-level corruption (eg. cops asking for bribes) despite low-level public salaries being quite low doesn&amp;#x27;t jibe that well with this.&lt;p&gt;More disturbingly, despite that high pay there are regular reports of corruption in the highest ranks, only a few of which even see the light.  Here&amp;#x27;s one particularly unedifying saga that only made the news because the head honcho of a government-linked charity, paid $600k&amp;#x2F;year plus stupidly generous expenses (fleet of 8 cars etc), was foolish enough to sue a state-owned newspaper.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Kidney_Foundation_Singapore_scandal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;National_Kidney_Foundation_Sin...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Disneyland with the Death Penalty (1993)</title><url>http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gibson.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>narrator</author><text>I think the most interesting aspect of Singapore&amp;#x27;s government is they pay government officials multimillion dollar salaries.  This makes them very hard to bribe.  If you think about the size of the budgets government officials have authority over compared to their salaries, the temptation to be bribed and thus be dominated by corporate interests is overwhelming.  In Singapore the incentives are reversed.  Any allegation of corruption risks a lost job.  In other countries they would get fired and go to work at the companies that bribed them but in Singapore the private companies will have difficulty competing with their government salary, not to mention the prestige that comes with being a government official.&lt;p&gt;I would be in support of that being tried in the U.S, especially for senior level positions.  It would probably save money in the long run.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>drzaiusapelord</author><text>Bribery&amp;#x2F;favor system isn&amp;#x27;t usually for personal gain, its to pay for re-election campaigns. That&amp;#x27;s why we have this incredibly complex and huge political lobbyist system in the US.&lt;p&gt;Even someone worth millions can&amp;#x27;t personally pay out their own election campaign or just may not want to waste their personal funds.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;I would be in support of that being tried in the U.S, especially for senior level positions&lt;p&gt;Roughly 50% of Congress are millionaires with a median of about $3m. In other words, they&amp;#x27;re all fairly well off as-is.</text></comment>