I just saw something related in the news, apparently corruption in Afghanistan is on the scale of 23% of GDP. I can imagine that changing an economic system with that much corruption to something better is hard, since everyone depends on how things are now. Imagine what would happen if everyone's salary was suddenly cut to three quarters...<p>Actually, that's more or less what's happening in the Baltic countries now. The economic crisis has hit hard there, and the government is taking rather drastic measures to handle it.<p>Sources: <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/20/Corruption-biggest-concern-for-Afghans/UPI-61151263967760/" rel="nofollow">http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/20/Corruption-biggest...</a> and <a href="http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4320882,00.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4320882,00.html</a>