I lived in Thailand when the now deposed Thaksin Shinawatras party Thai Rak Thai won the election in 2001. I remember many Thais saying he was the ideal PM because he was the richest man in Thailand and <i>because</i> he was the richest man, he would never be corrupted. Fast-forward five years and the military deposed him because of his corrupt politics.<p>As long as you have a salary you can support yourself and your family on, I don&#x27;t think higher salary == less corruption. Au contraire, I believe that once you have a sufficiently high income&#x2F;wealth it&#x27;s very easy to start to disassociate with the &quot;people&quot; with an average (or lower) income&#x2F;wealth. That disassociation can then easily lead to moral superiority, that you are above the law&#x2F;morals of the common man.