How a bribe of 200 rubles pulls the country to the bottom

Giving a bribe is a crime

Bribery is bad, but only when it comes to officials. 89% of Russians think so. In everyday matters, an envelope with banknotes is perceived as a small and inevitable evil, which helps to "resolve issues." And even if it is carried to this most condemned official, the one who gives a bribe does not feel guilty.

The Criminal Code thinks differently. There are separate articles for receiving, and for giving a bribe, and for mediation. The crimes in which less than 10 thousand rubles were transferred stand apart.

That's right, don't be fooled: the 500 rubles that you put into your doctor's pocket so that he heals you better is not gratitude, but a crime. And in the end, it will affect the quality of treatment for other patients and the state of health care in general.

500 rubles is also a bribe

And again, some statistics: most often Russians give bribes when they violate traffic rules, get a license and are treated in hospitals.

“Just think,” they say. - I'm just trying to improve my life. I have money, so why can't I pay and get a better service? Actually, no, when it comes to a bribe. And it's not even about the moral component. Anyone who commits a corruption crime must understand: a bribe is already doing worse to others and will make it worse for him when there is a person with a greater fortune.

Let's take a hospital. The patient can pay for a separate room, imported medicine, personal nurse, if he wants and can, why not. Let the payment go through officially, through the cashier, and the money will be spent on improving the material and technical equipment of the clinic or distributed among employees when calculating salaries - this is how it works in a normal society.

A bribe is not the same. It goes into someone's pocket on unwritten conditions.

If a nurse is officially assigned to a patient, she looks after him, and the rest of the patients are distributed among other employees. The bribe nurse will look after the criminal patient at the expense of other patients. Moreover, sooner or later a situation arises when a bribe is considered the norm, without it you will not be able to receive even the services you are entitled to.

Small salaries have nothing to do with it. More precisely, they exert their influence. But bribes do not solve this problem, but only exacerbate it, because low income gives an indulgence to outright extortion of money.

If you give bribes, it is you who are to blame, for example, in cases where doctors endanger newborns if women in labor do not give them money. Every action has its consequences. Here are the most common ones:

They gave a bribe to give out the license without passing the exams. → Another person who can't drive.
To issue a certificate from a psychiatrist to obtain a license. → Another insane on the road.
In order not to take away the rights after violation of traffic rules. → Potential culprit of the next accident, reveling in impunity.
To get a place in kindergarten out of turn. → It is impossible to get to the kindergarten without a bribe, even if there are places there.
To go to university. → People with higher education know less than graduates of vocational schools. Including because the smart, but the poor are forced to go to these conditional vocational schools.
To pass exams and graduate from university. → Unqualified specialists everywhere.
For the anesthesiologist to give high-quality anesthesia.→ Patients who do not pay bribes receive substandard anesthesia, as the fee is taken for granted.
To get a promotion. → Departments are run by incompetent people.
To avoid being punished for a crime. → The perpetrators remain free. The atmosphere of impunity provokes scumbags to new crimes.

And we only dug a little deeper into the problem. In 2018, the police were aware of 30,495 corruption crimes. 3, 5 thousand facts of receiving and 2, 6 thousand - of giving a bribe were registered. Another 6, 5 thousand cases are bribery when it comes to the transfer of less than 10 thousand rubles.

You don't need to be a genius or an analyst to understand how police statistics relate to the actual number of bribes. This is not even the tip of the iceberg in terms of scale. These are the ears of a hippopotamus sticking out above the water, to which a huge deadly animal invisible to the eye is attached.

Bribes Lead to Disasters

We sorted out small household bribes and drove on. At a higher level, the situation only gets worse. Are you ready to buy apartments in new buildings, knowing that they are accepted with violations if the developer can pay? Going to shopping malls that violate fire safety regulations? Thus, the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping center, in which 60 people died in a fire, was doomed from the beginning: it worked with a huge number of violations. Still worked. Think of any major disaster, and you will find a trace of corruption almost everywhere.

Even if a particular bribe is not catastrophic, it still remains a crime.

When a person takes money for the performance of his duties, it is theft. He's already getting paid, and you're still bringing him an envelope. He is guilty. And you are to blame. It is from here that the legs of non-payment of taxes grow, because it is with them that you have to pay, for example, for the work of officials. Instead, you are taking a bribe. If a person provides you with a special service for money, then you are already a thief. You illegally get what you are not supposed to. You take the good away from the one who should get it.

Bribery splits society into people with money who have access to goods, and others. The more corrupt the state, the greater the gap between these groups. And the law remains on the sidelines. Who cares what is written there in the Constitution, if the legal norms are easy to correct by paying. Do you have enough money to want to live in such a state?

To defeat corruption, do not give bribes

The majority of Russians consider bribe-taking by officials to be a manifestation of general demoralization and corruption of the authorities. However, the number of economic crimes rather indicates the state of society as a whole.

Here's a checklist that, if you like to gamify everything, can easily be converted into a bullshit bingo form. Go to a crowded banquet and cross out the lines as soon as you hear something like this. When you cross it out, do not shout “Bingo!”, Shout out of longing and despair.

And you will hear this:

Laws are written in such a way that it is simply impossible not to break them.
As if you weren't stealing in his place.
You can't get anywhere without a bribe.
I wonder who he paid to succeed.
They go, check, only collect money.
Is 200 rubles a bribe?
Just think, they got caught drunk. I paid - and the rights were given.
I am a beggar because I am honest.

Take a look around. You can't scribble angry posts on Facebook with one hand that everything has been bought, and with the other hand the money to the traffic police officer. It is useless to resent corrupt officials, playing corruption games and dreaming of being in their place.

Corruption in this sense is very close to throwing garbage on the streets - you need to start with yourself first. Do not be deceived, this will not fix the situation much. As, however, the wrapper reported to the trash can does not solve the problem of garbage heaps. But you will at least be able to demand honesty and fairness without a fig in your pocket. It is inconvenient who argues. But someone has to start.

As long as you whine that you do not live well and are content with a slight improvement in your situation for a bribe, it will not be good in Russia.