Listen to the city news and try to avoid hearing of a corrupt official or judge fighting to stay out of jail. Try to go into politics and get anything done without making agreements with corrupt people. Corruption is a pervasive way of life in our society, and it is worse in many other countries. The Russians, who don't yet have the legal system in place to deal with capitalist style corruption, have major corruption in their society. It is fertile ground.
Many people go months without wages and survive by bartering.
Bartering and corruption are old friends to the Russians. When it comes time to reelect government officials, we think that the thief who is in office is better equipped to deal with the other rogues in office, so we reelect him. For example, Senator John McCain stands for what he believes in and doesn't play the game the Washington way. I usually avoid reading the books about corruption that land on the bestseller list. I even dislike writing about it.