This week, I want to break away from the routine a little bit and try to investigate something that is a little bit more unique; specifically, I want to zero in on a potential factor that contributes to financial success. The idea of "corruption" refers to something that can act as a driver in the sense that it can either drive wealth toward you or, in the opposite direction, drive wealth away from you.
First things first: let me begin by explaining what corruption. The following is a concise explanation for the idea of corruption, which was taken from an article on Wikipedia:
"Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption may involve many activities which include bribery, influence peddling and the embezzlement and it may also involve practices which are legal in many countries. "
Simply put, corruption can be defined as the practice of dishonesty for the purpose of financial gain or other gains. Let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture, but on an individual level, it's not hard to see how one could draw the conclusion that corrupt behavior leads to financial success and how corrupt behavior might even be highly profitable.
However, what about in a broader scale? Say and institutional or nationwide level. Let's do some simple qualitative analysis!
This will be accomplished through the use of some cross-tabulation. Therefore, let's compare corrupt countries with wealthy countries, as well as poor countries, and see if we can spot a pattern in the data. We are going to investigate whether or not there is a connection between levels of corruption and levels of wealth using indices that have been obtained from World Population Review.
Corruption Vs Wealth
By @Zestimony Using PowerPoint
Did you find your country?
After looking at the table that was just above, we were able to determine that Brazil is the fourth most corrupt country in the top ten (10) most corrupt countries and in the 9th place among the wealthiest countries. So, Brazil made it into the top ten (10) spots on both lists, as it is the ninth richest country and the fourth most corrupt country in the world.
Does this suggest that Brazil's position on this chart was achieved through corrupt practices? No, I don't think so; however, I have a firm conviction that Brazil as a nation will flourish more if they eliminate corruption. However, with only a correlation observed, we are unable to draw any absolute conclusions; there is not an obvious trend here; however, there may be one if we double the data set that was presented above.
Corruption Vs Poverty
By @Zestimony Using PowerPoint
According to the findings that are are shown in the chart that is located above, none of the countries that are ranked among the top top ten (10) most corrupt also appear among the top ten (10) poorest countries. This is an interesting realization, given that the inherent opinion I started out with is to establish that being corrupt is a surefire way to get oneself into financial hardship.
There is no doubt that corruption is one of the factors contributing to the widespread poverty in the countries that have been discussed above; however, based on these findings, it is clear that corruption alone does not tell the whole story. So, what does? We could look back at other factors such as leadership, among numerous others.
Going back to the world corruption index, it is clear that every country in the world is corrupt, which is why they all ended up on this list. However, the primary distinction between these nations is that some are more corrupt than others, or rather, some are simply better at concealing their corrupt practices than others.
What are your thoughts? Is there a lot of corruption in your country? What can you tell about the connection between corruption and the accumulation of wealth in the place where you come from?
Let's return to the Hive blockchain for a moment, do you observe any signs of corruption on the Hive network? I am interested in what you have to say about this. I think I am done for now! Let's discuss further in the comment section.
Sources:
World Corruption Index
World Richest Countries
World Poorest Countries
I remain 