Before I dive into the depths of this somewhat perceived as a dirty topic, I feel a disclaimer is appropriate that the text you find below is just a scientific and logical analysis of data and need not necessarily be considered as my personal opinion to influence the opinion of others.
Consider this; a ticket-blacker secretly buys some tickets from the clerk at a movie theatre which is running a show which is hugely popular. Mr. XYZ has some work to do and reaches the theatre late to be greeted by a long queue and slim chances of getting a ticket. So he can either go home sad, or purchase a ticket from the blacker at a higher price. Now compare this with Mr. ABC who has hectic work and can’t cook his own food, hence has to buy packaged food and somehow manages to eat them on the way to office, of course the packaged ready-to-eat food is much more expensive than normal food. Are the 2 situations very different? One might argue that the ones last in the queue missed the tickets because of the blacker. I ask: how many people miss their bus or train because they finished cooking late?
Let’s analyze another example. Mr. UVW wants to get his son admitted to a high-profile reputed school, but he needs to pay a donation for the same. This might be denying admission to some other meritorious student, but of course it’s up to the school authorities to decide if they need meritorious students or money to maintain their profile and infrastructure. Compare this to a posh restaurant, which sacrifices the opportunity of attracting a large number of people by offering ego-satisfaction to select few. Just as the quality of education in the corrupt school maybe better than other schools, the quality of food and service of the posh restaurant maybe better than other restaurants. However in neither case do the huge premiums paid justify the benefits? Also why is the first case considered corruption and the second case business? Isn’t the restaurant depriving someone who is as good a man as anyone else but has less money a chance to taste its cuisine?
Corruption can be categorized in different ways, just two examples are reflected above, and I will come up with more examples in subsequent part(s). However I once again stress that this article does not deal with whether corruption is good or evil, but only links it to business.