according to Jackie Chan, the most corrupt country in the world is...

[sunzt]

Although 3rd world countries like NK and Somalia are very corrupt, they lack the sophisticated international corruption and influence that the US (as a superpower) can wield. The US' corruption is not just limited to domestic matters, but it affects the world economy and foreign countries.

Corruption is tied to $$ and on a macro/global view, the US can wield its influence however it wants through almost any country in the world. This includes parts of "foreign aid" (tit-for-tat), government contracts, certain aspects of "free trade", foreign nation building, and DoD spending.

 

[randomrogue]

I'm not sure any of us are old enough to know the answer to that. Based on my very little experience it's gotten worse in the last 20 years but that's mostly a product of big companies swallowing up small companies. To do that they have to get a lot of business and they do that with bribes. It's something I don't fully understand though since in many cases once a company gets large enough it goes public and a public company is heavily scrutinized. I'm not sure how public companies get away with any of the sketchy stuff out there. What I saw was them using a middle man, another company that wasn't public, but it was pretty far removed from the actual shady deals. They can dodge taxes like everyone else but that's not really a big deal in the larger scheme of things.