I was wondering when someone was gonna mention Perkins. He confirmed my suspicions that there's nothin' new here. America is deeply corrupt and always has been.

The method these day is the one companies like Cargill use. First comes the rationalization. "We have no choice but to engage in corrupt practices because that's how business is done on other countries. Kinda like, when in Rome. . . " Then comes the bribe itself. "We don't engage in bribery. They do." I.e., to cover their tracks, U.S. corporations these days hire a local company to, say, build their processing plant with instructions to "do whatever it takes." Thus they plead ignorance and innocence and the American employees involved (unlike Perkins, who after a while couldn't live with himself) actually believe their own b.s.