the dollars lost to global corruption roughly match the annual budget of the federal government , so obviously some people the corruptors are making a ton of money , right? . well, no. bribery costs even the bribers. three surveys of 2400 businesses in fifty-eight nations found that "firms that pay more bribes are also likely to spend more, not less , management time with bureaucrats negotiating regulations, the lower their annual growth rates.
when countries reduce corruption, good things happen: poverty and child mortality rates decrease, and per capita income and literacy rates increase, among other benefits.