Well, let's pose a hypothetical. Suppose you go to City Hall to get the appropriate licenses. Say, you need a license to operate the building, and a license to occupy the building, and a license to operate the business. Three licences, and the law says that they're $100 each, per year.
But the people running City Hall are crooks, and they tell you that you can't have those licenses unless you pay them a bribe, $10,000 per license.
Do you say, "ho hum, just another cost of doing business"?
And let's assume you pay the bribe, and you open up the business, and later on the official sends the Chief of Police to tell you that unless you give the corrupt City Hall official another $1000 per month, they're going to shut you down for health code violations?
Do you think this is just normal government activity? |
