raincom
6 hours ago
It is common to hear phrases such as "Mr 10 percent" as a reference to powerful leaders in various countries. For instance, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is called "Mr 10 percent". 10 percent cut from every contract. This is not unique to Pakistan. In India, many regional party leaders (basically, they and their family own the political party) want 20 percent cut.
When one hears 2-6%, it is just the floor.
binlog
6 hours ago
Don’t need to look that far. The person in the White House is doing the same thing.
raincom
6 hours ago
The corruption elsewhere is of different order. In US, one can bid up four times normal, one at least delivers the quality. Elsewhere, roads fail, buildings fall, bridges collapse, pipes burst upon the first use, ...
georgemcbay
2 minutes ago
> In US, one can bid up four times normal, one at least delivers the quality.
Did you miss the entire Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool disaster?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/climate/reflecting-pool-c...
Or alternately, why would you believe that was a one-off event and not the current state of things with more recent no-bid contracts being awarded by an obviously corrupt administration?
williamtell
6 hours ago
That's quite optimistic. How many months of further development does a deal usually need to have something sizeable that can collapse?
glimshe
6 hours ago
If they are built at all.
cft
4 hours ago
I developed a three-tier corruption test in US:
1. Perfect roads. Little visible construction despite high traffic: no corruption.
2. Awful roads. Almost no visible construction - medium corruption.
3. Continuous years-long construction. Roads always semi -closed, semi-permanent "work zone". When one construction ends, another immediately starts - extremely high corruption
wakawaka28
an hour ago
I think you must consider geology and the economic health of each area together.
cft
30 minutes ago
That's why in Northern California all the roads are constantly under construction, but in Finland they're perfect. I was thinking that in California one needs to get an SUV simply because a sedan's suspension will not last much longer
vinyl7
6 hours ago
When was the last time the US built anything at all?
boc
5 hours ago
The US manufactures more goods annually than Germany, Japan, and S. Korea combined.
ribosometronome
4 hours ago
Isn't its population also larger than all three combined? It seems like some per capita measurement might be more telling here.
boc
4 hours ago
If you go that route, then the US is ahead of China for manufacturing output per capita. Which probably isn't what you wanted to hear.
skizm
6 hours ago
We did just break ground on the new tunnel from NJ to NYC for trains. We'll see how that plays out in the next 1-2 decades.
burnt-resistor
4 hours ago
$TRUMP coin is a way for foreign and domestic players to stuff money into his pockets.
pestatije
5 hours ago
during the nineties there was this joke going around in Spain:
the leaders of Germany, France, and Spain meet to discuss infrastructure...says the German chancelor: see this autobahn? 10% in my pocket...comes the French president and says: this autoroute? 20%...ha!, the Spanish prime minister says, you don't see no autopista here do you?
wakawaka28
4 hours ago
Is everyone here so afraid of downvotes or out of touch that they don't remember "10% for the big guy" Biden? I know the US doesn't exactly get "Foreign Aid" but our politicians sure do, and it's a broad spectrum problem.