I'm a little bit confused.. I am ecuadorian (efefctively 3rd world), we manage ourselves in dollars. I live in a somewhat affluent side of a main city, even tho I am not rich myself, and on a daily basis I see cars which are 50k+, one behind the other. Even though this people are corrupt (most of them, tax evasion, etc..), I'd argue that US corruption would be on another different scale... 20k for a presidential pardon from the president of the US, that's the price of a Chinese manufactured brand new car.