There is clearly a lot of discontent regarding the colour scale of this chart, so I’ve created an updated version that solves everyone’s problems. I think you’ll find the result is much better.
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It would certainly work well as happy pants.
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Nice! Still don’t believe a word of it, but now it looks cool, lol.
I like the happy pants idea, too. Would go great with my go-to-hell hat!
Yikes. Some people really don’t understand what corruption looks like if they are freaking out that the US is “green”. It is okay to be self critical and yet still realize that it could get worse. The US has corruption to be sure, but it is absolutely not on the same scale as some other countries. A company might toss some campaign funds to a politician in the hopes of getting some favor when laws are being passed, and in my mind that is a form of corruption, but it is leagues away from the kind of corruption that is plaguing and tearing apart the developing world.
In the US, the average citizen never almost encounters a situation where they need to bribe someone. Bribing a police or bureaucrat is far more likely to get you tossed in jail than get special treatment. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t happen, but it is risky and not a standard operating procedure like it is in some places. Businesses can’t expect a bribe to get them a passing inspection, and business certainly don’t need to pay a bribe out of fear of falsely failing an inspection. You can run a small business in the US and safely keep your bribery funds at zero. This really isn’t the case in those “red” parts of the world. There are places where every single time you interact with a bureaucrat or a police officer you MUST pay out a bribe. There are places in the world where it is literally impossible to own and operate a business without shelling out bribes on a regular basis.
So, I am not suggesting that people don’t remain self critical. We should all strive to stamp out corruption wherever it is. Corruption is one of the greatest evils responsible for the some of the greatest human suffering in the modern world. You can be critical of our failings while at the same time keeping some perspective and realizing that it could be a lot worse.
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Trouble is, it’s based on voluntary reporting. As such, it’s dependent on two things - one of course is that people have to volunteer the information, but the second is the availability of the internet to be able to make a report in the first place.
From the map, you’d think that Karnataka (big purple spot down south-west) is the most corrupt of the states, and that the south is generally more corrupt than the north. The reality is that the south has much higher internet access, since it’s where where the IT capitals - Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad - are located. As such, there’s more opportunity to report corruption in these places. Besides, these urban dwellers (yours truly included) are quick to take offence to corruption and report it (though we may not actually end up doing anything worthwhile about it, we do get sanctimonious). In the north, things are a little more difficult; if it becomes known that you reported a corrupt official/politician, your very life may be in danger.
I for one don’t believe for a second that Bihar or Haryana are less corrupt than Karnataka!
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God my homeland (Finland) is starting to suck first the horrible drop in PISA and now this. And the populists are gaining in the polls.
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HTML should provide a solution to that sort of problem, without resorting to flash. A markup standard for charts would help.
And now is it clearer why the FDA is pissed off that 23AndMe isn’t complying with basic marketing rules about medical tests and devices?
And you left in New Zealand so you get my vote! ;-)
Last time I was in the states I found it basically impossible to avoid institutionalized extortion at every turn. The culture insists it’s normal to require under-the-table kickbacks to all sorts of employees for all sorts of services and transactions. If you don’t grease the right palms, employees may flat-out refuse to do their job, while if you do, there is a good chance they will steal from their employers for you.
The fact that in so many situations the bribe is given secretly or at least discreetly illustrates that both parties know that it’s a shady deal at heart. Don’t let the boss know, don’t let the other people in line know, and definitely don’t let the taxman know and nudge nudge wink wink I’ll sort you out. This is exactly the sort of transaction that gets called corruption in other countries. In the US it’s just an assumed cultural prerogative.
And so … this probably didn’t even rate on this chart.
At least in India the population notices enough to be unhappy about exactly this thing happening in the local govt offices.
"Very clean" means that the corruption has been codified into law, so you can't tell that it's there.Finland is pretty consistently in the top 5 (it slipped from first place to third place this year), but there is definitely corruption, mainly in the form of good-old-boy networks. Most Finns don't recognize corruption when they see it:
Finland has been naive when it comes to corruption. One of the reasons for this is that long-established ways of operating are not perceived as illegal. Even officials often fail to recognise corruption.From http://yle.fi/uutiset/finns_naive_about_corruption/6713488A typical case involves a decision-maker contracting jobs to entrepreneurs within their close circle of acquaintances, as well as paying too little or too much for the work. Decision-makers commonly justify their actions by saying that the interests of the municipality and the contracted company coincide.
White collar crime needs bigger fines somewhere around 90-95% of their assets. Worst scum on the planet.
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I’m intrigued by the white spots. Western Sahara/southern Morocco, Greenland and Tibet (?). Is there some sort of non-autonomy exemption?
I’ve liked Cole’s stuff in the past, but his rhetoric is more than a bit overheated. e.g.: “Dear Press: Stop Enthusing About Habitable Planets until People like Va.’s Cuccinelli Stop Destroying this One”
I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.
Unless it’s restaurant tipping, in which case I agree that the situation that allows restauranteurs to underpay their employees and leave the customers to make up the difference is ridiculous and untenable; but unless you’re a regular, failure to tip hurts only the employee, not you, so I’m not sure how it qualifies as a “bribe”.
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Now you begin to know how Western Sahara feels.
morals. funny. you have no concept. vote? in a fair election process, that will work. however, criminals (specifically ‘white collar’ i suspect in your case) may have a far greater impact if not dealt with.
from the article stevelaudig linked to:
“American politicians don’t represent “the people.” With a few honorable exceptions, they represent the the 1%. American democracy is being corrupted out of existence.”
that is illegal. it must be addressed.
And that is a part of this. What people may perceive as corrupt is very much culture-driven. In the US, you walk into a shop, the item has a price tag, you pay it. Other (most) places, it’s either stupid or outright bad manners not to haggle. That ‘style’ of exchange finds its way into all other exchanges - not just retail. Friends from Romania expected to slip some cash to their border guards. Sometimes, to bring goods otherwise not acceptable, sometimes just to not be hassled. Americas regularly spending time in Mexico keep some dollars in their shirt pockets in case the federales pulled them over. Asian people I worked for or with would contract large amounts of work, then expect to renegotiate after the fact - shocked to find the American contractors were outraged. What we here might call ‘straight dealing’, others call puritanical behavior. Because, even if you see handing cash or favors over to officials as a form of corruption, others may see it as the traditional haggle. Without passing any judgement at all, we appear to be oddballs in the world. So, how on earth does a local ‘perception’ of corruption have any real practical meaning? It’s about how people feel, and has no absolute definition or objective data at all. It’s just survey data.
Shash - I don’t know Indian politics well at all. But maybe you can comment on this: when my son goes to Hyderabad or Chennai to visit sub-contractors, they come up with lines of greeters and elephants and what amounts to a parade with all kinds of favors and entertainments. That is what most Americans might see as a corrupt practice. It’s actually outlawed for government officials and contractors. But there, it seems to be simply seen as good manners and showing appreciation for the business he brings to them. Do you think I got the general idea right? Or did I miss something about the way local culture views it?
Despite using more colours, the greened version manages to get less contrast between the 3 cleanest categories. The map seems designed to suggest the US is as clean as Denmark, which it clearly isn’t.
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To be fair to the BB editors the default map on their site is kinda stupid - set to a fixed size that can not show the entire world map within the frame. Even if you drag it to show NZ it auto-snaps back to exclude it. There is a pretty sweet download package of graphics on their site though, which is what I used to make this map.
