As you pointed out a bit in your story, corruption is institutional in the West. In other places it is more personal "bribes".

So in other countries I might get pulled over by the police and have to pay a bribe to them personally and it can be negotiated. Here, traffic cops might write tickets to meet a departmental quota. Or they find ways to charge extra overtime they don't work, etc. Probably not the best examples.

Congress creates the laws and regulatory agencies like the S.E.C. refine (make specific rules) and enforce them. The S.E.C. rarely does anything that the industry completely hates. And Congress rarely creates law. No one looks at it and says, "we don't need that law or rule anymore." There are still laws on various State books like, kissing in pubic gets 3 days in jail, etc.

I believe transparency remains high. That's the irony. You don't need to hide anything! People generally just don't care. As Trump said in 2016, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters.""

That's the same for corporate America. No matter what they do, voters won't remember long enough, or care enough, to get Congress to change anything. But they COULD do something. That's the magic sauce in the West. It IS possible. I guess that's good haha.

America is a land of rackets. Everyone has their racket. It's fairly transparent how each racket works, what it does. Americans have the attitude of "you don't go after my racket and I won't go after yours." A lot of people get harmed if they try to live life without a racket ;)

Some might say Russia is like that. But I think there's a difference. In the U.S. people look to win through their institution, not personally. People are team oriented. So employees generally don't steal or try to screw their own companies. I believe its the same in Asia--even more so.

It's why, in the end, I just roll with it ;)