Money exchanged to alter the conduct of a person in position of power... That sounds familiar. I wonder if there's a name for that?
"Bribe: money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust"
..../s (you know, because what's serious these days is hard to tell)
Y'all in the US are so, so cactus haha.
"Nice business you have there, would be a shame if I changed my conduct back again, wouldn't it?"
Are there any countries that don't use the quid pro quo definition of bribery? At best, they try to keep a lid on it by capping campaign contributions, but that's not really "bribery is illegal" (if we accept the more liberal definition), more like "there's a limit on how much you can bribe".
However that has completely fallen apart with a toothless Congress, and a executive branch that can stack the 3rd branch with similar minded idealogues.
Glad I haven’t been bribing mechanics that work on my car.
I only pay them after the work is done!
Edit: typos
We all know bribes happen, but for the law to recognize a bribe as a bribe basically requires the two parties to have a signed and notorized legal document statating that they are knowingly entering into a quid pro quo, and that both parties are aware it's illegal to do so. Anything less than this, and it will never be prosecuted.
If you are a bureaucrat, the way to maximise your next paycheck is often to be especially tough on companies (and on the margin push for more complicated rules that you can be an expert in). Simplified, the logic is "See how tough I am, you better give me a good paycheck to make sure I'm playing on your team."
The beauty is: the bureaucrats at the regulator don't even need to consciously think this way. They can be tough out of the ideological and conscientious conviction at the bottom of their heart, and the mechanism that gives them comparatively higher pay afterwards still works. Being tough also raises your profile, when you are but a junior or middling drone.
The logic you are describing might work, but only for the most senior appointees who already have a high profile.
Tiger's in the house, y'all. And the roof is on fire. And the water is unavailable because it all got sold to nestle [4].
0 - https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/24397...
1 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/in-trump-era-lobbyi...
2 - https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/its-common-for-lobbyists-to...
3 - https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-pas...
4 - https://kitoconnell.com/2016/09/27/nestle-spent-11m-lobbying...