How does corruption actually destroy countries, especially developing countries ?
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The very simplified answer is that basically all the money going into the country basically “evaporates” as those in power are able to simply take it for themselves. This creates a problem that cannot be simply solved with more money. Even if a benevolent entity decided to help a poor country by giving them money that money would never get to where it is supposed to. Money for public works and infrastructure ends up in official’s pockets. Money for government institutions and services ends up the same. Any surplus from the economy also inevitably ends up there so worker’s wages remain low. So a rising level of corruption leads to a stagnant economy and ultimately deterioriation of infrastructure as well as government function. A developing nation is basically stalling an unable to grow due to this corruption acting as a parasite to its growth. Eliminating corruption is harder than it sounds, not just because the corrupt are usually also those in power but because it is often multi layered and benefits many people. Sure an elected official may get filthy rich from bribes and siphoning public money away but a regular citizen may also benefit from this status quo, or sometimes even just hope to benefit from it which is enough for them to not want to enact change, which is a long and hard road.
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