# The ethics of bribery **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 22, 2002, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504 "2002-03-22T06:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504/21 "2002-03-24T01:40:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Second Echo \* > **Because everyone _can_ be bought. It’s just a matter of finding the right price. Some people have high prices, some people have low prices, but all I have to do is to findout what’s important to you and then offer it in exchange for what’s important to me.** Nope, wrong. Some of us don’t value money that much. ---
**Author:** ![Gairloch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d2c977/32.png) [@Gairloch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gairloch)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504/22 "2002-03-24T02:38:25Z")
Hmmmm . . . Bribery of public officials as a _moral_ issue, huh? A little like asking if a sin is committed in Hell, is it still a sin? Idealistically, the government must still exist to some views as a paragon of virtue, or at least as the great upholder of values, but let’s cut some bait here – governments have been corrupt since the invention of governance, and any person or organization that seeks to hold power over others has already abandoned any moral ideal, since ideally (morally), all are equal, are they not? Many responses here quote the “LAW” as the deciding factor in morality, but it would be difficult to say with any authority that the law codifies morality, which leaves that argument out, and many could cite examples of laws that actually impede morality as they see it. As a public official, one is already “taking advantage of your office to get an improper advantage,” if only by seeking to make laws that everyone else must obey; and unless elected with a 100% plurality of all eligible voters one is certainly “betraying your constituents,” on some level by acting against the wishes of some minority; and as for the culture of impropriety and the atmosphere of corruption, well, anyone who thinks that was newly created or will ever disappear hasn’t been looking at the same civilization or history. Moral purity doesn’t exist, in short, and within a construct such as government which represents no endemic moral code other than the shifting whims of some portion of the body politic, the only thing wrong with accepting a bribe is doing it overtly so that one’s opponents can catch you and make political cannon fodder out of you, the better to advance their own (amoral) agenda. The flaw in the hypothetical is simply that any lobbyist would walk in with a suitcase full of cash. Anyone that unschooled in the ways of proper bribery deserves to be thrown out. **Gairloch** ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504/23 "2002-03-24T12:22:20Z")
It’s a bribe and accepting makes you corrupt. The lobbyists who approach you will have already worked out how you are going to vote. As you said, it’s something nice and clear-cut that nobody would question why. They offer you a low-ball offer to vote the way you are going to vote. They’re not testing the issue, they’re testing you. Next time will be a less clear-cut issue and the payola larger. You’re on the slide and the only variables are the speed and the price. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504/24 "2002-03-24T12:41:23Z")
If you take a bribe, it’s immoral, full stop. No ifs or buts. It doesn’t matter if the bribe is supposed to make you swing your vote. You are saying to yourself, “I can be bought.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-bribery/99504.md?page=1)