Well there is a difference between corruption in the US and in Russia (and I suppose Mexico, Brazil -- most countries), although it isn't the kind of corruption the writer of this article probably had in mind. That is, corruption in the US is not usually directly encountered by the population at large.
Although in Russia at least, speaking strictly anecdotally (i.e., the cops used to stop me all the time, but don't anymore), it's gotten a lot better in the past few years, probably connected with raising of police officers' salaries and a general crackdown on corruption, particularly among the traffic police.
--- On Sat, 11/22/08, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Corruption only happens in Venezuela and its Russian allies...
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 6:43 PM
> I know the proposition in the header to be true for a fact
> because I come from Chicago, where all the politicians and
> businesspeople are pictures of integrity and white collar
> criminal defense lawyers and the U.S. attorney's public
> corruption dfivision just sit around playing whist together
> wondering if somedfay someone will do something untoward.
> (Pay not attention to the ex-Gov in jail, the cronies of the
> current gov likewise, and the jaws closing around the gov
> and D Mare's pals. D amRe, they ain't never gonna
> get.) I am also confident that the current crisis has no
> criminal element. By the way, Doug and Liza, who have just
> moved to Brooklyn, offered me a part interest in a briodge
> thar runs from Brooklyn to Mahnhattan and it seemed like a
> good idea to me, so I plunked down my life savings onm it.
>