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The US has bribes too --it has simply organized them, institutionalized them, and raised the price for them. Thus when new legislation required me to get a passport to travel to Mexico, there was an option to pay for "expedited processing", a pretty hefty sum as I recall. Now if I had been in Mexico, I could have gotten "expedited processing" on something by paying a much smaller sum, and instead of going to some upper-management spin doctor, it would go to contribute to the family economy of the underpaid wage slave stamping papers all day in a hot, sticky, fly-covered office, and therefore almost forced to despotic displays of his minuscule power in an attempt to overcome the hideous boredom of official life.
Having said that, it is quite true that Paul did not give Felix a bribe, so it would be as well to consider what force that example would have for you in any given situation. But if bribes are not actively discouraged, then they are at least unofficially countenanced. My dad once took a man from the phone company to lunch to get him to investigate a problem with our line: the man did and was able to fix it, and later came to know the Lord: at least one instance, then, where giving someone an extra incentive to do their job was obviously not a too terribly evil testimony.
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