"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
without payments under the table, nothing gets done"
Americans simply don't realize how engrained into the culture and business world the "mordita" is.
You can't get on the list to have a telephone installed or get it installed without the "little bite"
Civil servants--including cops--are so underpaid that they cannot live on their official salaries and so resort to the 'little bite'
In one way, you can call it a very efficient system of government based on the capitalist premise that those who use the services actually pay for them rather than spreading the costs over the population as a whole.
Having lived in San Diego for 11 years and gone to TJ many, many times, I have lots of stories of friends getting shaken down (I was lucky). I heard too that the street cops had to pay their captains weekly amounts that exceeded the cops' salaries. Thus, the drunken tourists are picked up for alleged transgressions and shaken down. The more egregious instances are where they hold one tourist at jail while his buddy goes to the ATM stateside for the big bucks and returns with the cash. Holding many treasures, Mexico is filled with so much corrupt trash...