Pervasive corruption...

Pervasive corruption...  This article about the effects of pervasive corruption in Afghanistan is an eye-opener.  Most Americans have no experience at all with corruption this profound, and that makes it very hard to really grasp what it does.  I have some experience, from New Jersey in my childhood, to southeast Asia in the '70s, to Russia in the '90s and '00s.  Russia was particularly bad (and I understand it's considerably worse now, and organized), but it was never as bad as the Afghanistan this article describes...