POINT OF ORDER
TIM COHEN: Takes two? Not when one calls the shots
The difference between the position of the vendor and the stamp-waving government employee has become very obvious in the recent past
Politicians often claim that bribery is a two-way street. In other words, for every person in the government receiving a bribe, there is a someone in the private sector providing a bribe. That sounds eminently logical, but it’s not. Politicians raise the issue to introduce the presumption that bribery is an "us" problem; a problem endemic to society in general and not a problem that vests within the governing party. Obviously, it’s true that the private and public sectors are most often equally guilty when bribery occurs, but picturing the situation that way obscures the different situations in which the public and private sectors find themselves. The key to this problem is the difference in leverage between the vendor and the vendee. The private sector company is the one that has to jump through the hoops, financial and otherwise, established by the public sector company. There are situations in which the private sector will actively solicit people to bribe to win a contract. But i...
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