First, to demand a bribe only happens when you are in a position of authority to grant what someone wants, and then you offer them some terms to get what they want in an easier way via a side-payment.
So the person being bribed is (usually) not stealing from the person paying the bribe. They are stealing from whoever put them in that position of trust.
So for a company, they are ripping off the shareholders if they choose a vendor not based on how competitive the vendor is, but based on a side payment. The person paying the bribe receives a benefit.
But things get tricky when the bribe-taker is employed by the government and the bribe-payer is also a taxpayer. But still, if you want the ticket to be waived or the construction plan approved, you're happy to pay the bribe.
For example in communist countries healthcare was terrible, but if you could pay a bribe, then your loved one would get better treatment -- for example their beds would be cleaned more regularly. The doctor would pay more attention to them, etc. So the family of the loved ones would be the ones to approach the doctors with incentives, hoping this would be enough to get better treatment.
That's one extreme example. Here in capitalist Miami, we went to the beach and a local hotel had beach chairs and umbrellas that could be rented by the day. It was free for guests of the hotel, but $60 for someone not in the hotel. But we were told that if we paid the guy in cash, for merely $40 we could get the chair and umbrella for the day. Just a small little side-payment to help grease the wheels. We wanted the chair, and could save $20. It was the Hotel that lost out on $60. But long term, what happens is that the Hotel sees there is a long line of people wanting to hand out beach chairs, and the salaries for those adjust down, and perhaps some money needs to change hands with whoever appoints the umbrella dispenser. Then later on, some money might change hands to get to be person who appoints the person that dispenses the umbrellas. So over time, those economic rents dissipate as people realize "hey, I am a gatekeeper to something valuable, I can take a cut for myself." That process continues until there is no surplus value left that anyone is in charge of dispensing. That means small side-payments are made everywhere, from dealing with the police to getting a decent room in a hotel, to a table in a restaurant and eventually to even getting some meat from the butcher.
In such a society, it's basically impossible to be honest, even if you wanted to, because the endemic bribery is a stable equilibrium.
People have no idea how lucky they are to live in a society that values law and order, and how impossible it is to reform the corrupt society once corruption sets in and becomes expected as opposed to newsworthy.
These casuals dismissals and mocking of people who have an innate desire to follow rules and act with integrity is really foolish once you consider people die trying to enter law-abiding societies, as it's really hard for most people to have opportunities in life when everything is dominanted by side-payments or political dealmaking rather than who can provide the best service for the lowest price.
So the person being bribed is (usually) not stealing from the person paying the bribe. They are stealing from whoever put them in that position of trust.
So for a company, they are ripping off the shareholders if they choose a vendor not based on how competitive the vendor is, but based on a side payment. The person paying the bribe receives a benefit.
But things get tricky when the bribe-taker is employed by the government and the bribe-payer is also a taxpayer. But still, if you want the ticket to be waived or the construction plan approved, you're happy to pay the bribe.
For example in communist countries healthcare was terrible, but if you could pay a bribe, then your loved one would get better treatment -- for example their beds would be cleaned more regularly. The doctor would pay more attention to them, etc. So the family of the loved ones would be the ones to approach the doctors with incentives, hoping this would be enough to get better treatment.
That's one extreme example. Here in capitalist Miami, we went to the beach and a local hotel had beach chairs and umbrellas that could be rented by the day. It was free for guests of the hotel, but $60 for someone not in the hotel. But we were told that if we paid the guy in cash, for merely $40 we could get the chair and umbrella for the day. Just a small little side-payment to help grease the wheels. We wanted the chair, and could save $20. It was the Hotel that lost out on $60. But long term, what happens is that the Hotel sees there is a long line of people wanting to hand out beach chairs, and the salaries for those adjust down, and perhaps some money needs to change hands with whoever appoints the umbrella dispenser. Then later on, some money might change hands to get to be person who appoints the person that dispenses the umbrellas. So over time, those economic rents dissipate as people realize "hey, I am a gatekeeper to something valuable, I can take a cut for myself." That process continues until there is no surplus value left that anyone is in charge of dispensing. That means small side-payments are made everywhere, from dealing with the police to getting a decent room in a hotel, to a table in a restaurant and eventually to even getting some meat from the butcher.
In such a society, it's basically impossible to be honest, even if you wanted to, because the endemic bribery is a stable equilibrium.
People have no idea how lucky they are to live in a society that values law and order, and how impossible it is to reform the corrupt society once corruption sets in and becomes expected as opposed to newsworthy.
These casuals dismissals and mocking of people who have an innate desire to follow rules and act with integrity is really foolish once you consider people die trying to enter law-abiding societies, as it's really hard for most people to have opportunities in life when everything is dominanted by side-payments or political dealmaking rather than who can provide the best service for the lowest price.