A Response to AJ's Blog:

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AJ, I think this is a very interesting topic to write your blog about. I think although we may see more of Latin American corruption or even the corruption of other countries throughout our education, I don't think corruption is "more" prevalent in other places than it is in the United States. Like Professor Serrata said in class - corruption is just legal in the United States while it isn't in other places. The United States has a system put in place where the corruption is more well hidden and tolerated by the masses. A lot of corruption was still pretty well hidden until people started to care to call corrupt people of power out for it. I believe that's why we have so many scandals or “big stories” that come out in the news. The corruption is well hidden until it is exposed. The United States tries to put on such a heroic image of itself and an image of superiority that of course they want to hide any corruption that they have. They frown upon countries who are corrupt yet are corrupt themselves in many ways, but nobody wants to be a hypocrite. But down to the question of whether to be corrupt is to be human, I would agree that it is not human nature to be corrupt, it is situational. Power corrupts, it goes to peoples' heads, but I would not equate that with human nature. I'm sure that there are people who could get into a very powerful position and not lean towards corruption, but what I ask myself is this - are those really the people who want and strive to be in positions of power?

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